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HISPANIC 

NOTES  &  MONOGRAPHS 

ESSAYS,  STUDIES,  AND  BRIEF 
BIOGRAPHIES  ISSUED  BY  THE 
HISPANIC  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 


PENINSULAR  SERIES 


SANTIAGO  MAYOR 

(From  a  Compostellan  Azabache  in  the 
'  Hispanic  Society  of  America) 


mXLM.  OoM'Y 

arii  rri  c&ffoj-ao'fojoO  b  moi'?) 

(eohaniA  id  viai  -  1  ill  ‘ 


THE  WAY  OF 
SAINT  JAMES 


By 

GEORGIANA  GODDARD  KING,  M.  A. 

Professor  of  the  History  of  Art,  Bryn  Mawr 
College;  Member  the  Hispanic  Society 
of  America 


In  Three  Volumes 

Volume  I 
Illustrated 


G.  P.  PUTNAM’S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
1920 


Copyright,  1920,  by 

THE  HISPANIC  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 


Ube  Iknfcberbocfter  press,  Hew 


FOREWORD 

iii 

FOREWORD 

During  my  stay  in  Rome  of  two  years 
and  a  half,  I  employed  all  the  spare 
time  I  had  from  Books  and  Libraries  in 
viewing  the  Monuments;  and  I  at  last 
prescribed  to  myself  a  certain  Method 
in  making  my  Observations  so  as  to  go 
through  the  whole  City  in  twenty  Days. 
This  same  I  repeated  as  often  as  either 
at  the  Request  of  my  Friends  or  for  my 
own  Satisfaction  I  surveyed  the  city, 
always  allotting  twenty  Days  to  review 
the  whole.  —  Pere  Montfaucon. 

Following  the  precedent  of  the  learned 
Benedictine,  I  have  made  one  straight  story 
out  of  three  years'  wanderings,  and  places 
visited  and  revisited.  The  outcome  offers, 
first,  a  record  of  what  exists,  where  other 
accounts  are  incomplete  or  inaccessible, 
and,  secondly,  an  explanation  of  it.  Spain 

I.  Record 

II.  Ex¬ 
planation 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

I 

iv 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

i.  Icono- 

is  a  long  way  off,  and  pictures  are  not 
always  explicit.  It  has  taken  seven  years 
of  my  life.  The  writer’s  contribution,  in 

graphy 

particular,  is  first,  a  record  and  inter- 

2.  Chron- 

pretation  of  iconographic  detail  all  along 
the  way,  e.  g.,  at  Leyre  from  observa¬ 
tion,  at  Santiago  from  Aymery  Picaud’s 
account;  second,  an  attempt  to  date,  by 

ology 

comparison  with  such  dated  examples  as 

3.  TheCult 

exist,  without  any  <1  priori;  third  and  last, 
an  occasional  small  hypothesis  and  the 
ground  for  it,  e.  g.,  about  the  original  west 
front  at  Compostella,  and  the  cult  of 

of  Santiago 

Santiago. 

The  general  intention  is  stated  at  length 
in  the  first  chapter;  briefly,  it  was  to  dis¬ 
cover  and  record  the  evidence  of  Spain’s 
debt  in  architecture  to  other  countries, 
France  in  especial,  during  the  Middle  Age. 
By  contrast  with  the  French  style  which 
came  in  along  the  Camino  francos,  it  was 
necessary  to  define  the  Spanish  styles 
which  that  supplanted  or  modified,  and 
was  swallowed  up  in  at  last:  this  must 
justify  the  consideration  given  twice  or 
thrice  to  earlier  churches  on  sites  now 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

FOREWORD 

V 

occupied,  especially  to  the  earlier  sanctu¬ 
aries  of  the  Apostle.  At  Leon  Sr.  Lamperez 
had  already  made  such  a  study.  The 
intention  being  to  supplement  his  work  and 
Street’s  great  book,  not  to  compete  with 
them,  repetition  of  what  Street  had  pub¬ 
lished  is  avoided  and,  in  consequence,  only 
a  single  aspect  of  each  of  the  great  cathe¬ 
drals  can  figure  here.  To  deal  adequately 
with  any  one,  would  want  a  book  at  least 
as  large  as  this. 

For  those  who  desire  to  secure  facts 

Assertion 

while  avoiding  the  context,  a  very  careful 

without 

Index  is  supplied.  This  makes  it  possible 

tion 

for  the  learned  to  look  up  a  church  un¬ 
molested  by  the  dust  of  the  highway,  and 
even  the  learned  may  care  to  look  into  the 
pages  for  some  of  the  churches  which  are, 
so  far  as  may  be  ascertained,  hitherto 
unpublished:  of  these  are  Torres,  Bar- 
badelo,  Puerto  Marin.  The  writer  has 
looked  into  a  good  many  old  books  and 
not  a  few  remote  and  distinguished  periodi- 

Compara- 

cals.  The  excursus  into  what  may  seem  the 

tive 

literature 

field  of  comparative  literature,  indispens¬ 
able  to  the  argument,  was  long,  laborious, 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

vi 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Compara¬ 

tive 

Religion 

and  scrupulously  at  first  hand .  The  religions 
of  the  Roman  Empire  were  investigated  in 
competent  and  first-rate  authorities,  which 
are  enumerated  in  the  bibliography.  Cursor 
Mundi  is  cited  so  often,  though  an  English 
work,  because  it  is  precisely  what  it  calls 
itself,  a  Pilgrim  of  the  World,  that  has 
gathered  up  an  immense  quantity  of  cur¬ 
rent  and  floating  lore,  and  represents  just 
what  might  be  in  the  head  of  any  stone¬ 
cutter  or  master  of  the  works.  It  is  a 
popular  and  plebian  substitute  for  Vincent 
and  Honorius.  The  Bibliography  repre¬ 
sents  not  the  books  consulted  but  those 
which  yielded  matter  of  worth,  —  a  very 
small  proportion.  In  the  Appendix  are 
printed  a  few  pibces  justificatifs:  quotations 
inverse  or  others  too  long  for  a  footnote; 
the  Grande  Chanson  des  Pblerins,  the  Great 
and  the  Little  Hymn  of  S.  James  and  his 
Miracles  out  of  the  Acta  Sanctorum,  the 
Miracles  of  our  Lady  of  Villa-Sirga  out  of 
the  Cantigas  del  Rey  Sabio,  Thurkill’s 
Vision,  and  a  selection  of  Itineraries  for 
the  curious  stay-at-home. 

Possibly  it  will  be  said  that  this  little 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

FOREWORD 


vii 


book  is  neither  one  thing  nor  the  other, 
for  it  offers  archaeology  without  jargon, 
and  travel  without  flippancy.  The  writer’s 
hope  is  that  the  learning,  however  small, 
may  be  judged  sound,  and  the  style  not 
unworthy  of  it  in  being  the  ordinary 
vehicle,  which  is  the  daily  speech  of  cul¬ 
tivated  people:  and  that  some  worth 
and  some  pleasure  may  consist  in  the 
exact  account  of  what  was  done  and  seen 
with  the  sense  and  in  the  light  of  a  whole 
history  and  literature  yet  palpable  and 
precious,  though  less  familiar  to  the  gentle 
reader  than  the  immortal  ambience  of 
the  Lombard  plain  and  the  hill-towns  of 
Tuscany. 

To  pay  the  gratitude  I  owe  to  all  who 
have  helped  me  would  take  too  long  a  list: 
it  would  begin  with  the  great  S.  James 
himself,  with  the  good  Companion  of 
many  days,  with  a  great  and  generous 
lover  of  Spain;  and  end  with  the  long  suffer¬ 
ing  guardians  of  books  in  many  libraries, 
the  good-tempered  boys  and  girls  who 
fetched  and  carried  dusty  piles,  and  the 
outraged  librarians  who  despatched  too 


Nor 

pedantry 

nor 

imper¬ 

tinence 


The 

Good 

Companion 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


viii 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Kindness 

academic. 

many  tiresome  loans  by  post.  Some 
names  however  may  not  be  omitted,  nor 
may  I  leave  unsaid  my  thanks,  for  untiring 
and  learned  assistance,  to  the  Reverend 
Father  Middleton  of  Villanova  College, 
who  has  answered  questions  intricate  and 
importunate;  to  Dr.  Wright  and  Dr.  Patch 
of  Bryn  Mawr  College,  who  have  read  a 
number  of  chapters  in  manuscript,  and  bet¬ 
tered  them,  and  Dr.  Frank  and  Dr.  Bar¬ 
ton  who  have  answered  demands  sudden 

ecclesio- 

logical, 

and  surprising;  to  D.  Juan  Agapito  y  Re¬ 
villa,  the  Vallasoletan  architect  and  eccle- 
siologist,  for  precious  time  spared  to  me 
and  the  gift  of  publications,  some  other¬ 
wise  unattainable;  to  my  friend  D.  Angel 
del  Castillo  of  Corunna  for  other  articles 
and  specific  advice  and  instruction  sim¬ 
ply  invaluable;  to  D.  Benito  Fernandez 
Alonso,  of  the  Commission  of  Historic 

and  clerical 

Monuments  in  Orense,  for  many  cour¬ 
tesies  and  gifts;  also  to  Mgr.  Ragonesi, 
the  Apostolic  Nuncio  in  Spain;  to  the 
Archbishops  of  Santiago  and  Burgos  and 
the  Bishop  of  Leon;  to  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  cf  Santiago  and  the  Abbess  of  Las 

1 

FI  ISP  A  NIC  NOTES 

FOREWORD 

ix 

Huelgas;  to  the  Candnigo  Fabriquero  of 
Mondohedo  and  the  Candnigo  Archiver o  of 
Santiago,  and  D.  Felix  Araras,  Candnigo 
Magistral  of  Burgos:  and  to  twoscore 
parish  priests  who  without  a  single 
exception  offered  me  of  their  best,  from 
erudition  down  to  new  milk,  to  the  glory, 
in  the  grand  phrase  of  one  of  them  —  to  the 
glory  of  religion  and  of  Spain. 

G.  G.  King. 

The  glory 
of  religion 
and  of 

Spain  , 

I 

Bryn  Mawr, 

All  Souls’  Day,  1917. 

The  illustrations  are  taken  in  part  from 
old  books  and  museum  pieces,  in  part 
from  coins,  and  I  have  to  thank  G.  F.  Hill, 
of  the  British  Museum,  for  a  generous 
gift  of  casts  from  some  coins  in  that  col¬ 
lection;  in  part  also  from  photographs 
of  my  own,  and  others,  better,  of  E.  H. 
Lowber.  For  drawings  of  difficult  matter 
I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Miss  Helen  Fer- 
nald,  Instructor  in  the  History  of  Art  at 
Bryn  Mawr  College. 

To  the  Curator  of  Publications  at  the 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

X 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Use 

Hispanic  Society,  Miss  Isabel  K.  Macder- 
mott,  the  reader  owes  as  much  as  the  writer, 
for  her  long  patience  and  vigilant  oversight 
during  the  publication.  For  the  use  in 
Spanish  words,  names,  and  titles,  she  and 
I  are  responsible,  jointly,  but  it  seems 
desirable  that  I  should  explain  the  principles 
to  which  we  conformed ;  Spanish  names  of 
persons  and  places,  and  titles  of  modern 
books,  are  spelled  and  accented  in  accord¬ 
ance  with  the  latest  rulings  of  the  Spanish 
Academy;  the  titles  of  old  books  are  given 
as  the  author  gave  them.  But  it  is  a 
proud  truth  that  the  relations  between 
those  of  English  and  those  of  Spanish 
speech  were  not  established  yesterday,  nor 
even  during  the  Peninsular  War,  but  are  a 
part  of  the  ancient  heritage  of  the  two 
nations,  and  the  sign  thereof  is  that  Spanish 
places  have  English  names.  We  speak  of 
Seville  and  Corunna,  Pampeluna  and 
Saragossa,  Castile  and  Leon,  by  the  same 
token  that  Shakespeare  wrote  of  Katharine 
of  Aragon,  and  Southey  of  the  Infants  of 
Carrion  rhyming  to  Robin  Hood’s  Marion. 
Those  names  I  have  used  as  we  say  Venice, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

FOREWORD 

xi 

Rome,  and  Florence,  Paris,  Lyons  and 
Marseilles.  They  are  each  a  token  and  a 
pledge  that  insularity  is  merely  geographical 
and  not  intellectual,  that  isolation  on  the 
other  side  of  the  world  cannot  cut  off 
Americans  from  talking  in  free  and  homely 
speech  of  the  great  places  to  which  they 
turn  with  ancestral  love  and  longing.  In 
referring  to  Kings  and  Queens  of  the 
Spains,  and  other  saints  or  heroes,  I  have 
not  been  careful  always  to  call  them  by  the 
same  name,  but  as  Jack  and  Jill  may  be 
addressed  as  John  and  Joan  at  times,  I 
have  taken  the  liberties  that  old  acquaint¬ 
ance  allowed.  To  call  Isabel  the  Catholic 
Elizabeth,  or  the  English  Tudor  the 
Isabellan  style  (though  others  have  done 
it),  I  should  hold  for  presumption,  but 
Ferdinand  and  Alfonso  may  alternate 
methinks  with  Fernando  and  Alonso  when 
the  chronicler  or  the  hagiographer  prompts, 
and  S.  James  is  still  recognizable  as  San¬ 
tiago.  This  is  not  meticulous  nor  pedantic, 
but  it  is  comfortable  and  easy,  which  is  a 
great  good  in  travel.  G.  G.  K. 

Jack  shall 
have  Jill 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

xii 

WAY  OF  S  .  JAMES 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

CONTENTS 

xiii 

BOOK  ONE:  THE  PILGRIMAGE 

CHAPTER 

I.  INTENTIONS 

page 

3 

ii.  turpin’s  chronicle  . 

26 

III.  THE  BOOK  OF  S.  JAMES 

41 

IV.  THE  STATIONS  OF  THE  WAY  . 

64 

V.  ROMEROS  EN  ROMERIA  . 

93 

BOOK  TWO:  THE  WAY 

I.  SETTING  OUT 

137 

II.  HEART  OF  ARAGON  . 

152 

Jaca:  The  Cathedral 

157 

S.  Juan  de  la  Pena  . 

165 

Alfonso  el  Batallador 

192 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

xiv 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

III.  THE  BATHS  OF  TIERMAS 

.  202 

Leyre  .... 

.  210 

Sangiiesa 

.  230 

IV.  PAMPELUNA 

■  253 

V.  SAINT  SEPULCHRE 

.  286 

Puente  la  Reyna 

•  294 

El  Sepulcro 

•  309 

VI.  TOWN  CHURCHES 

•  324 

Irache  .... 

•  357 

VII.  THE  LOGRONO  ROAD  . 

•  366 

The  Spires  of  Logrono 

•  370 

Along  the  Battlefield 

.  381 

S.  Mary  the  Royal  . 

•  394 

VIII.  TWO  ROAD-MENDERS  . 

.  406 

Sieur  des  Orties 

•  43i 

NOTES  .... 

•  441 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

ILLUSTRATIONS 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


SANTIAGO  MAYOR  .  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

S.  JAMES:  FROM  BERRUGUETE’S  TOMB  OF 

CARDINAL  TAVERA  -51 

THE  SOUL  AS  PILGRIM.  125 

From  a  miniature  of  the  XVth  cen¬ 
tury 

THE  CREST  OF  THE  PYRENEES  139 

Photogravure 

A  PYRENEAN  VILLAGE  .  .  .  149 

S.  JAMES  AND  PILGRIM:  FROM  S.  CERNIN  1 79 

EUNATE  .  .  .  .  .231 

Photogravure 

THE  QUEEN’S  BRIDGE  .  .  .  286 

Photogravure 

EL  SEPULCRO . 3 II 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


xvi 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

PAGE 

THE  THURSDAY  MARKET  IN  ESTELLA  327 

CAPITAL  AT  ESTELLA  ....  349 

THE  DOOR  OF  THE  HOLY  SEPULCHRE  .  4O5 

A  MOUNTAIN  TOWN  ....  4O9 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

BOOK  ONE 

i 

BOOK  ONE 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

2 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Grot  Sandiagu! 

Herru  Sandiagu! 

E  ullreja! 

E  sus,  ejal 

Dens  adjuva  nos! 

— Marching  Song. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

3 

I 

INTENTIONS 

C’est  souvent  sur  les 
grands  chemins  que  la 
verite  apparait  aux  cher- 
cheurs,  ainsi  qu’aux  croy- 
ants. — Courajod. 

The  original  intention  of  this  book  was 
to  examine  the  claims  for  the  sources 
of  Spanish  architecture  in  the  Gothic  and 
Romanesque  period.  They  are  various. 
Was  everything  invented  in  Persia?  Or  in 
Syria,  or  Asia  Minor,  or  Mesopotamia?  Was 
everything  borrowed  from  France?  Was 
nothing  learned  from  outside  the  Peninsula? 

M.  Dieulafoy  will  have  it  that  all  the 
structural  forms  of  Romanesque  came 
from  Persia  to  Spain,  passed  thence  into 
France,  and  came  back  to  Spain  after  the 
Reconquest.  On  consideration  it  appears, 
in  the  first  place,  that  this  contention  will 
be  affected,  in  a  way,  by  the  larger  question, 

AND  MO  NOGRAPHS 

I 

4 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Orient  oder 
Rom 

now  undecided,  of  Orient  oder  Rom,  and  its 
later  development,  Byzance  ou  Orient,  and 
in  so  far  may  be  left  until  these  are  nearer 
solution.  In  a  way,  of  course,  there  is  none, 
for  every  beginning  has  its  antecedents.  The 
argument  of  Professor  Strzygowsky  is  allur¬ 
ing,  but  English  travellers  have  pointed  out 
that  for  the  chronology  of  the  churches  of 
Syria  and  Asia  Minor,  while  the  sequence  is 
plain  the  absolute  dates  are  wanting,  and  if 
they  are  not  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  century, 
as  once  so  confidently  asserted,  the  argument 
of  priority  falls  to  the  ground.  The  same 
is  true  of  a  good  deal  of  Persian  building: 
and  if  Justinian  sent  architects  to  Ctesi- 
phon,  he  probably  sent  others  direct  to 
Betica  and  Carthagena,  where  he  was  set¬ 
tling  what  once  had  been  an  army.  Com- 
mendatore  Rivoira  has  shown  with  a  proof 
beyond  challenge  the  early  Roman  use  of 
forms  which,  the  Romans  not  fancying 
them,  were  used  indeed  rarely.  Anything 
however  that  the  Romans  might  know,  the 
Spaniards  could  and  would  and  usually 
did  know,  and  here  the  law  of  parsimony 
affects  the  thesis  of  M.  Dieulafoy.  To 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

5 

turn  the  pages  of  Rivoira’s  great  work  on 
the  origins  of  Lombard  architecture,  is  to 
encounter  one  by  one,  most  of  the  typical 
plans  enumerated  by  M.  Dieulafoy  in  the 
opening  pages  of  Art  in  Spain  as  oriental, 
and  most  of  the  structural  devices  as  well. 

In  the  second  place,  he  offers  no  direct 
means  by  which  architectural  methods 
and  forms  could  be  conveyed  from  Persia 
into  Spain.  If  they  came  by  Europe,  the 
Romans  must  have  brought  them:  this  he 
dismisses.  If  they  came  by  Africa,  where 
are  the  elapes  of  the  long  journey?  The 
wonderful  little  churches  that  French  archi¬ 
tects  and  officers  have  unearthed  along 
that  shore  belong  to  Roman  and  Byzantine 
imperial  building.  The  Moors  are  gener¬ 
ally  believed  to  have  developed  their 
marvellous  civilization  on  Spanish  soil,  as 
the  Saracens  on  Sicilian  and  the  Arabs  on 
Mesopotamian :  it  flourished  after  an  interval 
long  enough,  and  it  relied  upon  such  charac¬ 
teristics  and  essential  elements  as  the 
horse-shoe  arch  and  the  philosophy  of 
Aristotle,  which  it  found  already  in  Spain. 
In  this  Arab  question  it  is  possible  to  com- 

The  route 
of  church- 
builders 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

6 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Arab  trails 

Loans  to 
France 

mand  expert  testimony.  Says  Ibn-Khal- 
doun  the  historian,  “When  a  state  is 
composed  of  Bedawi  f Arabs]  it  needs  men 
of  another  land  for  building.”  M.  Gayet, 
who  supplies  this, 1  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
Arabs  depended  on  the  men  they  con¬ 
quered,  architect  and  day  labourer  alike, 
for  their  edifices:  that  alike  in  Persia,  Egypt, 
and  Spain,  their  art  is  moulded  about  a 
pre-existing  formula,  and  betrays  the  in¬ 
clination  of  a  race  which,  though  it  may 
touch  at  points  the  Arab  civilization,  yet 
preserves  its  individuality  and  haughtily 
affirms  it.  So  much  for  the  intrinsic 
likelihood  of  their  serving  as  carriers  from 
Persia. 

Thirdly,  there  is  small  evidence  of  French 
borrowing  from  Spain  before  the  year  1000. 
Sr.  Lamperez  once  began  to  make  a  list  of 
such  cases :  the  first  number 2  was  the  little 
church  of  Germigny-des-Pres,  due  to  Theo- 
dulf  the  Spanish  bishop  of  Orleans:  the 
second  number  has  not  yet  been  published. 
The  domed  architecture  of  Perigord  and 
Quercy  is  more  wisely  referred,  when  dates 
are  scrutinized,  to  the  repeated  experi- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

7 

ments  of  French  builders,  helped  by  the 
presence  of  a  Venetian  colony  at  Limoges. 3 
The  architecture  of  Roussillon  is  not  bor¬ 
rowed  from  Spain,  it  is  simply  Spanish, 
for  in  the  Middle  Age  Roussillon  was  a 
part,  most  of  the  time,  of  the  King  of 
Aragon’s  domain.  Isolated  instances  of 
imitation  in  France  there  may  well  have 
been,  but  rather  in  decoration  than  in 
structure,  and  most  apparent  in  borrowing 
the  cusped  and  trefoiled  openings  for 
arcades,  windows  and  doors;  but  no 
general  movement  such  as  M.  Dieulafoy 
postulates. 

The  great  wave  which  he  calls  a  back¬ 
wash,  the  influx  of  French  architecture  into 
Spain  that  began  in  the  eleventh  century 
and  lasted  till  the  fourteenth,  few  nowadays 
will  try  to  deny  or  even  mitigate.  French 
knights  came,  and  French  monks,  and 
French  master-masons,  carvers  and  builders 
both.  The  main  business  of  this  book  is 
with  them.  What  is  not  so  much  denied, 
by  serious  scholars  and  the  world  at  large, 
as  ignored,  unknown,  is  the  importance  of 
that  which  it  supplanted,  the  beauty,  in 

The  back¬ 
wash 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

i 

8 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Mozarabic 

churches 

truth  the  existence,  of  an  art  noble  and 
autochthonous.  In  Asturias  and  Leon, 
In  Galicia,  in  those  southerly  parts  of  the 
ancient  county  of  Castile  which  are  now 
the  provinces  of  Soria,  Palencia  and  Valla¬ 
dolid  in  Catalonia  and  Aragon,  stand  lonely 
and  forgotten  churches,  some  cruciform, 
some  basilican  in  type,  marked  nearly  all 
with  the  horse-shoe  arch;  some  built  early 
in  the  Reconquest,  some  due  to  a  long 
persistence  of  the  type  in  places  remote 
or  unpeopled: — they  are  the  great  might- 
have-been  of  Spain.  They  owe  much  to 
Constantinople  and  more  to  Rome:  some¬ 
thing  to  the  Visigoths,  and  wherever  was 
the  earlier  home  of  them;  little  or  nothing 
to  France,  that  is  to  say,  to  Franks.  With 
these  pre-Romanesque  churches  I  hope  in 
some  measure  to  reckon  in  the  book  that 
shall  follow  this,  but  not  here:  they  are 
not  found  along  the  Pilgrim  Way. 

The  extent  of  Spanish  relations  with  the 
lands  that  lie  east  of  the  Mediterranean,  is 
matter  of  history.  In  the  first  three  cen¬ 
turies,  religions  were  fetched  thence,  the 
worship  of  Serapis,  of  Mithras  and,  accord- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

9 

ing  to  Spaniards,  of  Jesus;  then  heresies, 
then  precious  relics,  and  memories  of  the 
Holy  Land;  then  travellers’  tales,  and  the 
exploits  of  Crusaders  and  the  Great  Con¬ 
quests  of  Over-Seas.  The  question  is  not 

The  Great 

whether  this  Oriental  influence,  so  hotly 

of  Over- 

asserted,  was  possible,  but  whether  it  was 

Seas 

actual.  Spiritually,  in  religious  worship 
and  belief,  it  is  apparent,  though  even 
there  Rome  may  nave  been  the  carrier. 
There  is  a  debt  to  Egypt,  and  the  worship 
of  Isis  and  Serapis  was  deeply  rooted  in 
Spain.  It  has  left  traces  perhaps  on  Span¬ 
ish  worship  even  to  this  day.  Just  what 
the  Coptic  contributed  to  the  formation  of 

Isis  and 
the  Coptic 

Carolingian  and  Romanesque  art,  we  are 

not  yet  prepared  to  say,  but  certainly 

Church 

Coptic  Christianity  influenced  Spanish 
hagiography.  I  shall  have  to  show  later 
how  great  perhaps  was  the  debt  to  Syria, 
how  legends  were  carried  by  bishop  and 
merchant  like  seeds  by  birds.  Sr.  Lam- 
perez  will  have  it  that  he  has  found  the 
trail  of  a  Syrian  architect  who  came  on  the 
Pilgrimage  in  the  twelfth  century,  at  Irache, 
and  at  Zamora.  I  believe  him.  Yet  on  exam- 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

10 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

The  Thou¬ 
sand  and 
One 

Churches 

Campani - 
lismo 

ining  the  plans  and  photographs  and  state¬ 
ments  of  fact — I  expressly  exclude  the 
deductions  drawn  thence — of  The  Thou¬ 
sand  and  One  Churches , 4  for  instance,  of 
Professor  Butler’s  Mission  to  Northern 
Syria,  of  Crowfoot’s  journey  and  de  Vogue’s, 
the  correspondences  that  appear  with  what 

I  know  in  Spain  are  so  few,  that  it  seems 
safer  to  classify  them  as  like  effects  of  a 
common  cause.  Two  further  limitations 
must  be  put  to  the  last  sentence:  one,  that 
Templars’  building  and  that  of  the  Orders 
of  the  Hospital  and  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  in 
Spain,  are  excepted,  for  there  is  Syrian  or 
other  Asian  influence  there,  but  the  build¬ 
ings  form  a  class  apart,  as  will  appear  in  the 
course  of  the  book.  The  other  is  that  there 
will  be  no  consideration  of  any  styles,  in 
Asia  Minor  or  Asturias,  Mesopotamia  or 
Galicia,  Syria  or  Andalusia,  of  which  all  the 
examples  have  completely  disappeared. 

Into  the  fault  of  not  getting,  intellec¬ 
tually,  the  sound  of  your  town  belfry 
out  of  your  ears,  have  fallen  some  very 
distinguished  Frenchmen  who  habitually 
speak  on  .Spanish  matters  as  having  au- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 


thority.  When  M.  Bertaux5  too  lightly 
attributes  matter  very  various,  all  to  the 
school  of  Toulouse;  when  M.  Enlart  rashly 
insists  that  Peter  Peterson,  the  architect 
of  Toledo  ( Petrus  Petri,  reads  his  epitaph), 
instead  of  Pedro  Perez,  is  Pierre  the  son  of 
Pierre,  and  wants  to  make  one  of  these 
Peter  of  Corbie, 6  then  they  bring  reproach 
upon  their  nation.  There  is  only  one 
method  to  form  a  judgement  of  this  sort, 
the  exactest  and  most  disinterested  com¬ 
parison  of  objects.  When  Street  wrote 
that  Leon  Cathedral  was  built  from  French 
designs,  at  some  time  after  the  year  1230, 
he  cited  in  evidence  the  mouldings  at 
Rheims,  Amiens,  and  Laon:  the  passage 
is  quoted  elsewhere.  Nothing  less  would 
serve  him.  M.  Bertaux  has  wride  reading 
in  contemporary  Spanish  ecclesiology  and 
a  facile  and  happy  instinct  which  oftener 
guesses  a  truth  than  proves  it.  M.  Enlart 
has  a  recondite  experience  of  early  Gothic : 
on  the  churches  of  Italy,  of  Cyprus,  of 
Scandinavia,  he  can  speak  from  acquaint¬ 
ance,  but  he  has  not  pushed  so  far  as  might 
be,  into  Spain,  else  had  he  never  fobbed  off 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


1 1 


MM.  Ber¬ 
taux  and 
Enlart 


Vol.  II, 
p.  250 


12 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Spain 
closed  in 

1559 

Ripoll  with  only  three  apses,  instead  of 
seven. 

There  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  shrug  the 
shoulders  when  a  Spanish  Canon  and  his 
English  admirers  go  astray;  taking  up,  for 
instance,  the  dispute  as  to  priority  between 
the  churches  of  Santiago  and  S.  Sernin, 
if  one  of  them  asserts  that  there  were,  in 
that  style,  early  instances  a-plenty  in 
Spain,  but  unhappily  all  have  perished 
except  those  posterior  to  Santiago;  or  if 
another  wrests  the  pilgrim’s  note  that  S. 
Martin  of  Tours  had  ambulatory  and 
chapels  “like  Santiago,”  into  an  authentic 
statement  that  it  was  copied  after  Santiago. 
This  is  not  scholarly,  not  critical.  An 
elder  generation  of  Spanish  ecclesiologists 
was  betrayed  at  times  into  an  assumption 
that  Spain,  like  the  Great  Council  at 
Venice,  was  at  a  certain  date  closed  to  out¬ 
side  influence,  just  as  in  the  year  1559  it 
was  closed  to  foreign  learning:  but  the  men 
of  weight  and  the  men  of  genius  in  Spain 
today,  are  free  from  taint  of  error. 

If  the  names  of  two  French  scholars 
only,  muy  respetables,  are  singled  out,  it  is 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

13 

precisely  because  they  are  so  rightly  and 
so  heartily  respected.  There  are  others. 
The  rest — for  instance,  M .  Henri  Stein, 7 — 
when  they  snatch  everything  in  Europe, 8  are 
left  with  another  shrug. 9  But  these  are  not 
in  like  case.  Of  their  judgment  and  experi¬ 
ence  we  should  not  anticipate  the  crowning 
argument  that  because  the  tenth  cen¬ 
tury,  or  the  twelfth,  in  France  came  to  no 
such  flower,  therefore  it  could  not  in  Spain. 
Both  these,  if  they  knew  better  the  land  of 
Spain,  would  doubtless  abate  their  claim 
for  France,  as  the  present  writer  has  had 
in  due  course  to  do.  When  one  has  learned 
really  to  know,  league  after  league,  a  single 
region,  the  Tierra  de  Santiago  and  there¬ 
abouts,  for  instance,  or  the  Burgalese,  or 
northern  Catalonia,  or  southern  Navarre; 
or  when  one  has  studied  the  development 
through  the  centuries  of  a  great  chantier,  that 
of  Leon  or  that  of  Compostella,  one  comes  at 
last  to  realize  that  the  stuff,  whencesoever 
it  comes,  is  soon  altered  and  made  over. 
Sometimes  one  sees  the  French  leavening  a 
vast  lump;  sometimes  the  metal  is  French 
but  Spanish  the  image  and  superscription. 

The  image 
and  super¬ 
scription 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

When 

Avila  was 
repeopled 

That  stands  to  reason.  It  is  not  much 
better,  with  M.  Bertaux,  to  dismiss  every¬ 
thing  of  a  certain  sort  as  school  of  Toulouse, 
than  with  Richard  Ford  to  talk  about 
Norman  architecture  in  Segovia,  because 
we  are  used  to  calling  it  Norman  in  Eng¬ 
land.  In  spite  of  all  their  likeness,  the 
English  churches  are  not  like  those  of 
Normandy,  though  the  conditions  made 
a  relation  far  closer  there,  of  incessant 
passage  and  interchange,  than  ever  existed 
between  Spain  and  France.  Building 
French  by  origin  may  be  Spanish  in 
detail;  again,  the  converse  appears. 

A  great  chantier  at  its  very  inception 
must  have  had  to  call  in  local  workmen. 
Raymond  of  Burgundy,  for  the  repeopling 
of  Avila,  in  1090,  fetched,  along  with  ninety 
French  knights,  twenty-two  masters  of  pie- 
dr  as  taller  and  twelve  of  “ j  ometria,”  for 
the  walls:  these  had  to  build,  besides  the 
walls,  the  cathedral  and  the  churches;  yet 
in  1109  the  work  on  S.  Vicente  was  re¬ 
ported  as  well  along.  The  masters  had 
trained  their  men,  and  this  case  is  probably 
typical.  From  time  to  time  new  blood 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

15 

was  wanted:  sometimes  after  deliberation 
the  chapter  would  write  away  for  an  archi¬ 
tect,  as  that  of  Astorga  sent,  fearing  it  was 
too  late,  to  enquire  at  Burgos  for  Master 
Francis  of  Cologne.  Sometimes  one  came 
along  of  himself,  like  that  William  the 
Englishman  who  is  said  to  have  built  the 
great  church  of  Sahagun.  So  Villard  de 
Honnecourt  went  to  Hungary ;  so  he  passed 
by  Chartres  and  Lausanne  and  sketched 
there.  Workmen  from  the  Royal  Domain 
formed  the  style  at  Leon;  from  Burgundy, 
that  at  Avila.  Workmen  from  Chartres, 
passing,  left  their  handiwork  on  door¬ 
jambs  at  Sangtiesa;  from  Rocamadour, 
left  a  plan  like  Souillac  at  Estella. 

The  stone-worker’s  is  a  wandering  craft. 
That  R.  Lombardo  who  signed  a  contract  in 
the  Seo  de  Urgell,  to  build  the  church  with 
four  other  Lombardos,  had  crossed,  belike, 
both  Alps  and  Pyrenees  with  a  sack  of 
tools  on  his  shoulder,  some  sort  of  sketch 
book  in  his  wallet.  Bishop  Alonso  of 
Carthagena,  riding  home  from  the  Council 
of  Bale,  broke  the  journey,  it  is  conjectured, 
at  Cologne,  and  there  picked  up  an  honest 

A  wander¬ 
ing  craft 

AND  MON  O.G  R  A  P  H  S 

I 

i6 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Master 
William 
and  Master 
Claus 

workman,  Hans  by  name,  with  as  little 
ceremony  as  he  would  have  used  to  hire  a 
running-footman,  or  buy  a  hawk  or  a  boar- 
hound.  Was  not  Master  William  called  “of 
Sens,”  master  of  Canterbury  Cathedral? 
Did  not  one  same  Master  William  and  one 
same  Master  Nicholas  leave  their  signatures 
at  Verona  and  at  Modena,  and  their  sign 
at  Cremona  and  Ferrara?  Up  and  down 
the  coast  of  Catalonia  and  even  into  the 
isles  of  the  sea  travelled  Jaime  Fabre:  all 
over  the  kingdom  of  the  Castiles  you  may 
track  the  work  of  John  of  Badajoz.  When 
the  princely  uncles  of  the  King  of  France 
were  still  in  their  splendid  ascendency, 
Claus  Sluter,  working  for  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  wrote  home  to  Holland  for  his 
nephew  to  come  down  and  join  him;  Andre 
Beauneveu,  working  for  the  Duke  of 
Berry,  was  visited  twice  at  least  by  work¬ 
men  of  Burgundy,  bent  on  learning.  In 
October  or  November,  1373,  Claus  Sluter 
and  Jean  de  Beaumetz  were  sent  to  him 
at  the  Chateau  of  Mehun-sur-Yevre,  “pour 
visiter  certains  ouvraiges  de  peintures, 
d’ymaiges,  et  d’  entailleures  et  autres  que 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

17 

Monseigneur  de  Berry  faisit  faire  audit 
Meun.”10  The  other  party  consisted  of 
masters  in  works  of  carpentry  and  of 
masonry,  of  Philippe  le  Hardi  in  Flanders, 
all  expenses  paid. 

A  few  more  examples  may  serve:  Eudes 
de  Montereau  went  to  Palestine  with 

S.  Louis,  and  worked  much,  and  learned 

“  I’ve  been 

more.  Jean  Langlois  of  Troyes  went  on 
the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  in  1267,  not 
probably  alone,  and  it  has  been  pointed 
out  that  the  cathedral  of  Famagusta,  in  the 
island  of  Cyprus,  bears  a  strong  likeness 
to  the  characteristic  style  of  Troyes.  For 
Charles  of  Anjou  in  Naples,  worked  at 
least  one  builder  from  the  Isle  of  France, 
between  1269  and  1284,  —  Pierre  d’Angi- 
court.  A  hundred  years  later,  in  1377, 
Guillaume  Colombier  of  Avignon  was  oc¬ 
cupied  at  Anagni — that  removal,  however, 
left  him  still  in  Papal  territory.  Matthew 

to 

Palestine  ” 

of  Arras  appears  at  Avignon  in  1342  and 
the  Emperor  Charles  IV  takes  him  thence 
to  Prague  to  build  the  cathedral  there. 
Henry  Arler  of  Boulogne-sur-Mer  is  said  to 
have  drawn  the  plans  for  that  of  Ulm  — 

• 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

1 8 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Villard  de 
Honne- 

court 

but  if  so,  something  happened  in  the  course 
of  executing  them. 

“J’ai  este  en  mult  de  Here,  si  cum  vos 
pores  trover  en  cest  Hire,"  writes  Villard 
de  Honnecourt, 1 1  and  again,  beside  the 
drawing  of  a  window  in  Rheims,  with  a 
sudden  recollection  of  bitter  home-sickness : 
“  I  was  in  Hungary  when  I  drew  that,  there¬ 
fore  I  love  it  more.” 

The  architect  in  other  days,  indeed, 
like  the  portrait  painter,  trusted  more  to 
his  mind  and  less  in  his  material:  Villard 
in  Hungary  drew  out  from  memory  the 
pattern  of  the  lovely  rose  and  lancets  at 
Rheims.  Still,  when  he  encountered  the 
antique  he  sketched  from  it  on  the  spot, 
here  a  votive  statue,  in  the  nude  or  all 

The  Sepul¬ 
chre  of  a 
Saracen 

but,  there  a  Gallo-Roman  sepulchral  monu¬ 
ment.  “  De  tel  maniere,”  he  notes,  later, 
quaintly,  “/m  li  sepoulcre  d’un  Sarrizin 
quejo  v i  une  fois.”  The  chance  to  study 
a  living  lion,  out  in  Hungary,  was  seized 
as  a  piece  of  great  luck;  almost  as  well  as 
Mokkei  with  the  tiger,  he  caught  the  pose 
of  the  huge  doggish  creature  in  the  moment 
before  his  spring.  The  design  of  a  clock, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

19 

the  pattern  of  an  inlaid  pavement,  the 
tracery  of  a  rose  or  a  labyrinth,  he  sets 
down  as  he  encounters  them;  a  device 
to  make  the  lectern-eagle  turn  and  bow  at 
the  Gospel,  another  to  keep  the  priest’s 
hands  warm  enough  to  celebrate  the  Mass 
on  bitter  mornings  in  northern  winters. 
He  preserves  these  as  he  thinks  them  out: 
afterwards,  turning  over  the  leaves  with  a 
friend,  or  in  his  old  age,  he  makes  his  com¬ 
ments  and  adds  his  reminiscences.  An 
admirable  plan  was  that  which  he  and 
Peter  of  Corbie  worked  out  for  vaulting 
the  double  ambulatory. 

So  when  such  men  met,  on  the  tramp, 
travelling  for  commissions  or  on  pilgrimage, 
be  sure  the  sketch-book  came  out,  yielding 
much,  acquiring  more,  as  they  sat  each 
with  other,  through  the  long  hours  of  dark, 
inter  se  disputando. 

All  along  the  Pilgrim  Way  you  may  see 
where  they  have  been.  Desirous  merely 
of  finding  out,  at  first,  what  evidence 
exists  for  these  French  claims  and  these 
Spanish  disclaimers,  I  have  followed  step 
by  step  the  route  laid  down  by  Aymery 

Peter  of 
Corbie 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

20 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Sres.  Alta- 
mira,  Mo¬ 
reno  and 
LampSrez 

Picaud  in  the  twelfth  century,  for  the 
pilgrims  going  to  S.  James.  Precisely 
there,  on  the  main-travelled  road,  if  any¬ 
where,  the  proofs  would  lie.  What  this 
book  records  was  learned  from  looking, 
and  from  books  of  history.  Also  at  times 
are  quoted  the  conclusions  of  Sr.  Gomez 
Moreno,  sometime  of  Granada,  of  D.  Ra¬ 
fael  Altamira  who  is  an  historian,  of  D. 
Vicente  Lamperez  who  is  a  working  archi¬ 
tect,  versed  in  the  learning  of  his  craft, 
for  these  three  are  men  of  approved  sobriety, 
reasonable  in  their  postulates,  liberal  in 
their  admissions,  well  established  in  their 
inferences,  but  even  here,  as  in  the  case  of 
personal  judgements,  in  the  propounding  is 
distinguished  whatever  is  matter  of  opinion. 

I  have  rung  the  changes  on  belike  arrd  per- 
adventure,  it  seems,  and  it  well  may  be,  till 
the  reader  doubtless  is  heartily  sick  of  them 
all.  I  owe  the  scruple  to  the  original  intent, 
which  was  simply,  I  repeat,  to  disengage 
and  present  evidence.  Everything  believed 
at  the  outset  was  abandoned  long  ago;  and, 
out  of  examination  and  comparison  and 
perpetual  returns  to  view  old  matter  under 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

21 

a  new  light,  has  been  built  up  a  theory,  not 
new,  but  not  before,  perhaps,  just  so  applied, 
of  the  importance  of  the  chantier. 

Half  by  accident,  at  the  outset,  was 
Aymery  Picaud  taken  for  guide.  In  an 
earlier  piece  of  work,  editing  Street’s  great 
book  on  Gothic  Architecture  in  Spain ,  the 
main  lines  of  French  penetration  into 
Spain  were  marked  and  approved.  Before 
the  breaking  out  of  the  War  I  had  hoped  to 
follow  those  ancient  roads  across  France, 
and  pause  with  the  pilgrims  at  Vezelay  and 
S.  Gilles,  at  Limoges  and  Saintes  and 
Toulouse;  to  see  Saumur,  and  Parthenay- 
le-Vieux,  the  home  of  Aymery,  and  Blaye, 
where  Roland  lies  buried  and  beside  him 
Oliver,  and  Oliver’s  sister  who  died  of 
sorrow,  “  A  ude  au  vis  cler.”  I  had  hoped 
from  among  winding  riverside  poplars, 
or  on  the  huge  domes  of  the  volcanic  land, 
or  by  S.  Gilles,  beside  the  great  waters 
of  the  glimmering  meres,  to  look  up  on 
August  nights  and  see  how  ran  the  starry 
track,  straight  south-westward  to  Com- 
postella.  Personal  disappointment,  the 
imperfection  of  a  little  piece  of  work,  is 

Aymery 

Picaud 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

22 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

La  douce 
France 

not  so  much  as  to  be  uttered  where  the 
sacred  name  of  France  is  invoked  today. 
Acquaintance  from  of  old  with  much  that 
was  best  in  France,  la  douce  France,  made 
the  first  plan  not  impossible  though  modi¬ 
fied  perforce:  but  the  close  study  of  the 
Camino  frances  has  been  commenced  and 
ended  inside  the  Spanish  frontier. 

The  intention,  as  the  reader  will  see, 

The  Road 

has  grown  long  since  from  a  mere  pedantic 
exercise  in  architecture,  to  a  very  pilgrim¬ 
age,  to  following  ardently  along  the  ancient 
way  where  all  the  centuries  have  gone. 
The  kings  of  Spain  had  built  a  highway  to 
assist  pilgrims  in  the  twelfth  century:  but 
the  road  was  there  already.  The  Romans 
had  built  a  military  road  as  sign  and  condi¬ 
tion  of  their  domination:  but  the  road  was 
there  already.  Palaeolithic  man  had  moved 
along  it,  and  the  stations  of  a  living  devotion 
today,  he  had  frequented;  there  he  made 
his  magic,  and  felt  vague  awe  before  the 
abyss  of  an  antiquity  unfathomed.  Along 
that  way  the  winds  impel,  the  waters 
guide,  earth  draws  the  feet.  The  very 
sky  allures  and  insists.  “Commo  se  de- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

23 

mostrdu  d  Calrros  as  estrelas  enno  ceo 
commences  the  Gallegan  version  of  Turpin 
the  Archbishop,  ‘  ‘  how  the  stars  in  the  sky- 
revealed  themselves  to  Charlemagne.  ”  “  It 
signifies  that  you  shall  go  into  Galicia  at 
the  head  of  a  great  host,  and  after  you  all 
peoples  shall  come  in  pilgrimage,  even  to 
the  end  of  time,”  thus  the  vision  spoke  to 
the  Emperor :  and  the  vision  said  to  Bernar- 
dette:  “A  chapel  shall  be  built  here;  I 
mean  that  people  shall  come  in  processions 
to  it,  .  .  .  so  that  all  peoples  shall  come 
in  processions  from  all  places  in  the  world,  ” 
multitudes  and  multitudes,  forever. 

The  known  facts  of  geography,  though 
edifying,  cannot  wholly  explain  this  matter 
of  the  elder  sanctuaries,  nor  tell  why, 
though  religions  come  and  go,  men  set 
their  feet  eternally  toward  a  certain  hilltop, 
there  to  lift  up  their  hearts.  Sursum 
cor  dal  the  attitude  is  old  as  humanity,  the 
emotion  is  strong  as  death.  At  S.  Michel 
du  Peril  the  Druids  held  their  assemblies 
in  the  place  of  those  they  had  supplanted. 
At  S.  Michele  in  Gargano  the  bull  of 
Mithras  still  lurks  in  the  cave,  wounded 

Angelorum 
ag  mine 
sepe 
visitatur 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

24 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Under¬ 

ground 

waters 

for  the  timeless  sacrifice.  An  awe  broods 
even  over  the  Protestant’s  and  the  Puri¬ 
tan’s  line,  when  he  comes  to  “the  great 
vision  of  the  Guarded  Mount.”  In  the 
lonely  shrine  of  the  Madonna  del  Parto, 
Piero  della  Francesca  paused  to  paint  a 
strange  figure,  older  than  the  Maiden, 
older  than  the  Romans’  homely  gods  of 
hearth  and  garth,  for  Piero,  mountain- 
born,  could  hear  the  noises  that  travel 
along  the  earth  and  over  frozen  seas. 
That  sound  of  underground  waters,  which 
we  call  folk-lore,  murmurs  through  all  his 
inscrutable  art;  and  his  figure  is  worshipped 
there  as  from  of  old,  the  earth  goddess 
invoked  by  women  about  to  bring  forth. 

Mystics  can  tell  how  journeys  to  such 
shrines  are  made:  The  way  is  opened 
before  you,  and  closed  behind  you.  Simple, 
that:  believe  it  or  not,  it  happens.  So 
with  Compostella:  to  those  grey  granite 
hills,  ringed  round  with  higher,  the  blind 
longings  are  drawn,  the  restless  feet  are 
guided.  It  is  not  a  place  to  live,  triste, 
grey,  quite  dead;  nor  even  a  place  to  love, 
not  beautiful,  not  sympathetic;  but  when 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

25 

you  are  away,  it  draws  you.  In  the  spring, 
when  frost  is  out  of  the  ground,  and  ships 
are  sailing,  week  by  week,  you  cannot  get 
it  out  of  your  head :  as  you  smell  the  brown 
fresh-turned  clods,  it  works  in  your  blood. 

There,  as  I  went,  so  went  the  Middle 
Age.  The  great  Pilgrimage  was  some¬ 
thing  hugeous,  incredible.  On  the  current 
of  it  was  borne  this  noble  French  archi¬ 
tecture,  already  spoken  of ;  along  the  stream 
of  it  grew  up  a  body  of  noble  French  epic; 
in  the  winding  gorge  of  Roncevaux,  still 
echoes  the  Chanson  de  Roland. 

Roland’s 

horn 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

26 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

II 

TURPIN’S  CHRONICLE 

Es  livres  qui  parolcnt 
des  roys  de  France  trovons 
escript  que  par  la  proiere 
Monseigneur  Saint  Jacques 
dona  Nostre  Sires  cest  don  a 
Charlemaine  c’on  parleroit 
de  lui  tant  com  le  siecle 
durtroit. 

Charlemagne  was  old,  he  had  worn 
out  his  life  fighting  all  over  the  earth ;  he 
was  weary  and  would  rest,  when  one  night 
he  saw  a  starry  road  that,  beginning  at  the 
Frisian  sea,  crossed  France  and  Gascony, 
Navarre  and  Spain,  to  the  world’s  end.  It 
ran  on  across  the  sky  to  Galicia,  where 
the  body  of  S.  James  at  that  time  lay 
unrecognized.  Many  a  night  he  saw  the 
marvel,  and  understood  it  not.  At  last  a 
fair  lord  appeared  to  him,  and  when  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

27 

Emperor  asked,  “Lord,  who  art  thou?” 
he  answered,  “I  am  James  the  Apostle, 
Christ’s  servant,  Zebedee’s  son,  John 
Evangelist’s  brother,  elect  by  God’s  grace 
to  preach  His  law,  whom  Herod  slew:  look 
you,  my  body  is  in  Galicia  but  no  man 
knoweth  where,  and  the  Saracens  oppress 
the  land.  Therefore  God  sends  you  to 
retake  the  road  that  leads  to  my  tomb  and 
the  land  wherein  I  rest.  The  starry  way 
that  you  saw  in  the  sky  signifies  that  you 
shall  go  into  Galicia  at  the  head  of  a  great 
host,  and  after  you  all  peoples  shall  come 
in  pilgrimage,  even  till  the  end  of  time.  Go 
then;  I  will  be  your  helper:  and  as  guerdon 
of  your  travails  I  will  get  you  from  God  a 
crown  in  heaven,  and  your  name  shall 
abide  in  the  memory  of  man  until  the  Day 
of  Judgement.”  In  saecula  saecnlorum, 
A  men — the  promise  rolls  like  thunder  among 
the  reverberating  centuries. 

So  Charlemagne  makes  three  expeditions 
into  Spain.  In  the  first  he  pushes  as  far 
as  Compostella  and  beyond,  riding  into 
the  sea  and  sticking  there  his  lance  in  sign 
of  his  dominion  even  to  the  ends  of  the 

A  road  to 
a  grave 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

28 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Compos- 

tella, 

Rome,  and 
Ephesus 

earth.  In  the  great  church  he  establishes 
a  Bishop  and  Canons  under  the  rule  of  S. 
Isidore,  bestows  those  bells  that  Almanzor 
was  to  carry  away.  In  the  course  of  the 
second  foray  he  builds  a  church  and 
founds  an  abbey  hard  by  Cea  bank,  where 
Sahagun  is  situate.  In  the  third  invasion 
he  holds  a  Council  at  Compostella  and 
confers  such  privileges  as  Rome  could 
never  enforce  for  herself  —  every  house  in 
Spain  must  pay  four  pence  a  year,  every 
plough-land  recoveied,  a  measure  of  wheat 
and  a  measure  of  wine;  bishops  must  come 
thither  for  investiture  and  kings  tor  coro¬ 
nation.  Compostella  he  makes  the  metro¬ 
politan  see  of  Spain,  co-equal  with  Rome 
the  seat  of  Peter,  and  Ephesus  the  burial- 
place  of  John.  On  the  way  home  he  takes 
Saragossa  and  in  the  mountains  his  rear¬ 
guard  is  beset  by  Saracens.  Roland  and 
his  twenty  thousand  good  knights  are 
slain,  and  buried  by  the  Emperor  at  Blaye 
and  Belin,  Bordeaux  and  Les  Alyscamps. 
He  calls  a  Council  at  S.  Denis  to  dower 
that  abbey  like  S.  James’s  and  at  Aix 
he  paints  the  history  of  the  Spanish  wars 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

29 

upon  his  palace  walls.  Finally,  when  he  is 
dead,  and  the  deeds  of  all  his  life  lie  in  the 
balance,  and  that  is  insecure,  a  Gallegan 
without  a  head  throws  in  the  stones  of  all 
the  churches  that  he  built,  and  thus  re¬ 
deems  the  promise  of  his  early  apparition. 
This  ends  the  Chronicle  of  Turpin.  The 
same  crisis,  it  will  be  remembered,  occurred 
in  the  case  of  the  good  King  Dagobert  and 
also  in  that  of  the  German  Emperor  Henry 
who  lies  now  sainted  in  Bamberg,  thanks 
to  prompt  action  by  S.  Michael. 

The  latest  contribution  to  letters  of  M. 
Bedier  has  been  to  show  how  all  this  is 
related  by  action  and  reaction  to  the  great 
pilgrimage,  and  how  the  incidents  which 
have  sprung  up  along  its  route  contribute 
to  its  success.  He  goes  so  far  as  to  say 
that  the  whole  Book  of  S.  James,  the  Codex 
called  of  Pope  Calixt,  of  which  this  of  Tur¬ 
pin  is  a  part,  was  compiled,  probably 
by  a  French  monk,  in  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century,  and  was  intended  pre¬ 
cisely  as  an  instrument  of  propaganda, 
in  other  words,  an  advertising  scheme  for 
the  pilgrimage.  As  the  pseudo-Calixtus 

The  Epical 
Legends 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

30 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

The  first 
Knights  of 

asked  of  clerks  notes  on  the  saints  of 
their  churches,  so  the  pseudo-Turpin  asked 
of  professional  jongleurs  notes  on  the  per- 

sons  in  their  romances.  Charlemagne 

Santiago 

and  his  peers  are  Pilgrims  of  S.  James, 
they  are  the  first  Knights  of  Santiago. 
The  idea  gives  occasion  to  M.  Bedier’s 
ripe  and  poetic  genius  for  une  belle  page 
that  may  be  detached  without  much  more 
damage  than  a  flowering  hawthorn  bough: 

L’idee  est  belle  de  grouper  dans  les 
Landes  de  Bordeaux  les  heros  de  toutes 
les  gestes,  appel6s  des  quatre  coins  de 
l’horizon  poetique,  de  les  acheminer 
tous,  epris  d’un  meme  desir,  vers  le  tom- 
beau  de  Galice,  et  de  les  ramener  par 
Roncevaux,  afin  que  l’apotre,  a  cette 
demiere  etape  de  leur  pelcrinage,  leur 
donne  tous  a  la  fois  leur  recompense,  la 

joie  d’etre  martyrs.  L’idee  est  belle  de 

e^on  moylo 

ce  crepuscule  des  heros,  qui  renaissent 

de  chorar 

ensemble  a  la  lumiere  eternelle.  L’idee 

sobre  el 

est  belle  de  distribuer  leurs  depouilles, 
leurs  reliques,  sur  les  routes  de  Com- 
postelle,  pour  qu’ils  en  soient  les  gardiens, 
pour  qu’ils  prot£gent,  eux  les  p&lerins 
triomphants,  ceux  de  l’Eglise  souffrante : 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

3i 

ils  sont  leurs  modules  sur  ces  routes,  leurs 
patrons,  leurs  intercesseurs. 

Idee  recente,  dit-on.  Sans  doute, 
puisque  la  vieille  Chanson  de  Roland, 
celle  du  manuscript  d’Oxford,  1’ignore. 
Mais  idee  qui  precede  pourtant  de  la 
vieille  Chanson  de  Roland.  Charlemagne 
et  ses  pairs  chevaliers  de  S.  Jacques,  e’est 
1’invention  nouvelle ;  mais  deja,  dans  la 
vieille  chanson,  ils  fetaient  les  chevaliers  de 
Dieu.  Ils  meurent  &  Roncevaux  au 
retour  du  pMerinage  de  Galice,  e’est 
1’invention  nouvelle;  mais  la  donnfe  est 
ancienne,  hferitfee,  qu’ils  meurent  a 
Roncevaux,  au  retour  d’une  croisade,  et 
dejA  la  vieille  Chanson  de  Roland  est,  k 
de  certains  fegards,  une  Passion  de 
martyrs.  .  .  / 

enton 

Rulan 
martere  de 
Jkesu- 
Cristo.  .  . 

Certain  chansons  de  geste  show  an  exact 
knowledge  of  the  long  way  and  the  stopping 
places  on  it.  Even  in  the  Entree  d’Espagne, 2 
though  the  Paduan  poet  who  composed 
it  in  the  fourteenth  century  depended  but 
little  on  the  pseudo-Turpin,  the  Pilgrimage 
is  the  necessary  antecedent,  and  the  back¬ 
ground,  of  the  action.  Composed  in 
honour  of  Charlemagne,  it  is  perpetually 

L'Entrle 
d’Espagne  j 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

32 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Out- 

landers' 

geography 

preoccupied  with  S.  James.  The  business 
of  the  warriors  is  not  so  much  to  deliver 
the  Apostle  from  the  Saracens  in  occupa¬ 
tion,  as  to  keep  the  road  open.  Of  the 
Way  the  Paduan  has  only  hearsay  knowl¬ 
edge — he  knows  of  Najera,  and  the  bridge 
at  Najera,  and  sets  his  great  battle  there, 
but  we  must  suppose  he  brings  in  his  army 
not  by  the  pass  of  Roncevaux  but  by  the 
sea-shore  route,  otherwise  they  could  never 
have  got  to  N  a jera  before  Pampeluna.  He 
knows  of  Estella,  about  which  lies  much  of 
the  action,  Astorga,  and  Carrion:  on  the 
other  hand,  he  puts  Belin  close  to  Pam¬ 
peluna,  and  if  Orthez  is  to  be  identified  with 
Nobles,  then  he  makes  a  like  mistake  there 
again.  Not  knowing  the  mountain  passes, 
he  takes  a  safe  course  and  makes  the  entry 
vaguely  by  Port  d’Espagne.3  Burgos  is 
merely  Bors  d’Espagne,  a  place  from  which 
came  one  of  four  kings,  the  others  ruling  in 
Logrorio,  Estella,  and  Sant  Mart.  Now 
Santas  Martas  is  a  tiny  sanctuary  on  the 
Camino  frauds  that  no  one  would  ever 
remember  unless  he  happened  to  sleep 
there. 4  Nothing  could  be  more  significant 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

i 

CM 

CM 

than  this  information,  concrete  and  in¬ 
exact,  about  the  places  familiar  to  the 
pilgrims. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Prise  de  Pam- 
pelune 5  is  as  exact  in  its  itinerary  as  Childe 
Harold's  Pilgrimage.  Charlemagne  takes 
a  town,  baptizes  the  people,  and  moves  on 
to  another;  takes  it,  baptizes  it,  and  treks. 
The  man  who  first  planned  this  poem,  not 
necessarily  Nicholas  of  Verona,  for  some 
of  the  incidents  of  it  lie  in  the  dim  back¬ 
ward  and  abysm  behind  the  Chanson  de 
Roland,  —  either  had  made  himself  the 
journey  from  Pampeluna  to  Compostella, 
or  had  taken  notes  from  the  talk  of  a 
pilgrim  who  had  made  it,  or  else,  conceiv¬ 
ably,  he  had  access  to  a  better  and  fuller 
Guide  than  Aymery  Picaud’s, 6  and  his 
public  knew  as  much  as  he.  This  is  in  the 
situation  of  The  Road  in  Tuscany,  of  A 
Note-Book  in  Northern  Spain:  half  the 
interest  lies  in  the  presentation  on  the  one 
hand,  recognition  on  the  other,  of  matter 
familiar  to  both  and  by  both  felt  romantic¬ 
ally.  While  Saragossa,  Cordova,  and  To¬ 
ledo  are  vaguely  envisaged,  the  westering 

La  Prise  de 
Patnpelune 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

i 

31 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Anseis  de 
Carthage 

road  runs  straight  and  plain,  by  Pampe- 
luna,  Estella,  and  Logrono. 

Sus  le  cemin  seint  Jaques  somes  sens 
gaberise, 

Vees  la  Charion, — 7 

and  after  Carrion  we  see  Sahagun,  Masele, 
which  will  be  Mansilla  de  las  Mulas,  Leon, 
and  Astorga,  where  was  once,  as  still  at 
Compostella  there  is,  a  Porta  Francigena. 

Ver  la  porte  che  veit  ver  F range  e  ver 
Bertagne8 

Roland  spurs,  and  the  episode  ends  with 
a  movement  westward 

A  la  porte  che  veit  ver  Seint  Jaques 
tutour.9 

Another  long  and  very  readable  poem, 
composed  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
Anseis  of  Carthage, 1 0  draws  not  only  from 
the  pseudo-Turpin  but  also  from  the 
legendary  store  of  Spain.  Spanish  and 
French  critics  are  agreed  that  Anseis,  the 
old  Councillor  Ysore  and  his  daughter 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

35 

Lentierra,  owe  their  being  to  Roderick, 
Count  Julian,  and  the  unhappy  lady  called 
la  Cava.  The  morale  of  it  is  different;  the 
young  king  is  shown  as  pretty  nearly  unable 
to  help  himself  in  the  false  position  that  the 
lady  has  contrived,  the  father  as  a  renegade 
hell-ripe,  and  the  countess,  remanded  to 
a  convent,  gets  off  too  easily  with  a  knightly 
young  son  to  intercede  for  her  and  to 
succeed  her.  The  Saracen  princess  Gan- 
deira,  whom  Anseis  intended  all  along  to 
marry,  comes  out  as  the  conventional  good 
wife  of  chivalry.  It  is  not  really  necessary 
to  suppose  much  more  borrowing  from 
Count  Julian  than  from  Paris  of  Troy: 
where  likeness  exists,  the  story  is  common 
enough  in  history,  in  romantic  poetry,  and 
in  life.  But  the  geography  is  rich  and  re¬ 
sponsible.  Taking  place  up  and  down  the 
Way,  all  over  the  Way,  the  action  is  a 
little,  in  places,  like  a  battle  in  Shakespeare, 
and  in  others,  like  the  page  which  good 
Baedeker  consecrates  to  an  all-day  journey. 
Anseis,  beset  by  Saracens,  falls  back  from 
somewhere  beyond  Astorga  making  one 
desperate  stand  after  another,  as  far  as 

Count 

Julian 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

i 

36 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Astorga  in 
the  plain 

Hornillos  del  Camino  and  Castrojeriz, 
and  thence  sends  messengers  along  the 
whole  route  up  through  France  to  the 
court  of  Charlemagne:  the  emperor 
marches,  stage  by  stage,  reconquers  Spain, 
and  finally  goes  home  and  gives  thanks: 
the  reader  also,  having  now  been  over  the 
road  three  times.  If  Pierrot  du  Ries 
wrote  the  poem,  not  merely  copied  it,  then 
Pierrot  had  himself  once  skirted  wood, 
descended  painfully  into  a  valley,  forded 
the  stream  at  the  bottom,  breasted  the 
hill  beyond  the  Orbigo  and  had  the  sudden 
vision  of  Astorga  in  the  plain  adobe- walled, 
crested  with  huge  towers  where  it  stands 
yet  like  the  ivory  elephant  on  a  chess¬ 
board  and  — 

Droit  ver  Luiserne  tout  i  antiu  cemin, 1 1 

he  too  had  gone  with  Franchois. 

This  same  city  of  Luiserne,  with  its  story 
out  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  had  long  in¬ 
trigued  scholars,  and  to  M .  Bedier  belongs 
the  praise  for  having  found  it,  at  last, 
simply  by  following  the  path.  Here  too,  the 
main  concern  of  everyone  in  the  poem  is: 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

37 

Le  cemin  ke  tu  as  Dieu  promis 

Del  bon  apostle. 

This  art,  moreover,  has  its  roots  in  the 
soil.  First  was  the  station,  then  the 
story,  as  M.  Bedier  points  out.  Some  of 
the  stations  may  be  older  than  he  reckons: 
as  night  mist  lies  late  in  mountain  hollows. 
The  memory  of  innumerable  dead  broods 
on  certain  fields  from  before  the  dawn  of 
history.  The  prehistoric  bones  in  the 
Rhineland  about  Cologne  were  so  multi¬ 
tudinous  as  to  give  the  seat,  and  possibly 
the  occasion,  of  two  legends  at  least:  that  of 
S.  Ursula,  with  her  eleven  thousand  maidens 
shot  to  death  with  arrows  by  the  German 
barbarians  from  further  north  and  east; 
and  that  of  the  Theban  Legion  who,  having 
received  corporate  baptism  and  given 
their  pledge  to  the  Wonderful,  the  Ever¬ 
lasting,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  then  sooner 
than  fight  the  battles  of  the  Empire  elected 
to  die  where  they  stood,  non-resistant. 
The  dead  of  Roncevaux  all  lie  with  their 
fathers  far  back.  At  Bordeaux,  a  great 
Gallo-Roman  necropolis  surrounded  the 

The  In¬ 
numerable 
Martyrs 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

3« 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  little 
flames 

shrine  and  tomb  of  S.  Seurin;  at  Blaye 
it  would  seem  S.  Romain  ( ob .  384)  found 
some  such  an  one  when  he  rebuilt  the 
famous  temple  in  a  field  of  sepulchres:  at 
Alyscamps  the  Romans  had  buried  in  the 
burial  place  of  those  they  overcame. 
Where  lie  the  tombs  of  the  dead,  where 
pass  the  feet  of  the  living,  there  the  little 
flames  of  the  holy  story  burn  brightly, 
and  the  ancestral  ghosts  are  worshipped  as 
martyrs  and  intercessors. 

S.  Roland  and  S.  Charlemagne  were  not 
fantastic  titles  to  the  Middle  Age. 1 2  In 
the  cathedral  of  Chartres  they  enjoy  a 
window  of  their  own,  like  S.  Stephen  and 
S.  Eustace  and  S.  Magdalen. 

With  Chartres,  in  truth,  though  the 
way  is  long,  Compostella  has  more  than 
one  curious  connexion.  The  famous  Codex 
named  of  Pope  Calixt,  which  contains  the 
Chronicle  of  Turpin  and  the  Itinerary  of 
Aymery,  contains  also  a  sort  of  liturgical 
mystery  play,  dealing  with  the  Mass,  that 
was  written  by  Fulbert  of  Chartres.  A 
clerk  of  Santiago  who  knew  the  great  Bishop, 
or  one  visiting,  may  have  brought  it,  or  a 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

39 

pious  pilgrim,  long  after,  made  of  it  a 
sweet  offering,  or  the  chapter  came  by  it 
through  some  ecclesiastical  intermediary: 
at  any  rate,  there  you  handle  the  MS.  and 
music  of  Bishop  Fulbert’s  composition,  as 
the  owner  laid  it  up  in  the  Codex  among 
other  precious  things.  There  were  plenty 
of  possible  intermediaries,  for  instance  that 

Bernard  of  Angers  who  wrote  the  Book 

The 

of  the  Miracles  of  S.  Faith  and  dedicated 

Miracles 

it  to  Fulbert  while  he  was  yet  alive: 1 3  now 
the  sanctuary  of  S.  Faith  in  Rouergue  was 
specially  recommended  to  pilgrims  on  the 
Way.  The  Codex  was  compiled,  as  most 
students  agree,  before  1150;  at  the  close  of 
that  same  century  or  very  shortly  thereafter 
a  workman  from  the  chantier  at  Chartres, 
passing  on  the  Camino  frances,  stopped  at 
Sangiiesa,  and  carved  six  figures  on  the  door- 

from 

Conques 

jambs  of  S.  Mary’s  Church,  three  of  them 

Three 

queens,  poor  relations  of  the  great  figures 

Queens 

from 

Chartres 

in  La  Beauce.  They  stand  there  yet  in  San- 
giiesa.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  glass- 
painters  of  Chartres  portrayed  a  window 
of  the  eastern  ambulatory  with  the  his¬ 
tory  of  SS.  Charlemagne  and  Roland,  after 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

40 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

and  S. 
Ferdinand 

the  versions  of  Turpin  and  Vincent  of 
Beauvais. 

That  window  is  flanked,  there  in  the 
eastern  aisle,  by  the  legend  of  S.  Vincent 
of  Saragossa  on  one  hand,  and  on  the 
other,  by  that  of  S.  James,  Spaniards  both, 
in  a  little  Spanish  reunion:  and  in  a  clere¬ 
story  window  above  still  rides,  as  donor, 
in  the  glowing  rose,  S.  Ferdinand. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

4i 

III 

THE  BOOK  OF  S.  JAMES 

Nay  more — where  is  the 
third?  —  Calixt? 

—  Villon. 

The  codex  called  of  Pope  Calixtus  has 
nothing  of  him  but  the  name.  Seeing 
that  he  was  in  the  world  Count  Guy  of 
Burgundy,  bom  brother  to  Count  Ray¬ 
mond,  Queen  Urraca’s  husband,  and  there¬ 
after  Archbishop  of  Vienne,  he  made  a 
plausible  parrain  for  the  MS.  which  was 
written  under  the  influence  of  the  great 
Archbishop  his  friend,  Diego  Gelmirez,  if 
not  in  his  day.  It  consists  of  five  books, 
described  as  follows  by  a  monk  of  Ripoll, 
Amaut  del  Monte,1  who  saw  it  in  1173: 

I.  De  scriptis  sanctorum  patrum, 
Augustini,  videlicet,  Ambrosii,  Hieron- 
ymi,  Leonis,  Maximi  et  Bede  .  .  . 

Calixtus  II 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

42 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Carmina 
Compos - 
tellana 

(aliaque)  scripta  aliorum  quorundam 
sanctorum,  in  festivitatibus  predicti 
apostoli  et  ad  laudem  illius  per  totum 
annum  legenda,  cum  responsoriis,  anti- 
phonis,  prefationibus,  et  orationibus  ad 
idem  pertinentibus  quam  plurimis. 

II.  Apostoli  miracula. 

III.  Translatio  apostoli  ab  Hierosoly- 
mis  ad  Hyspanias. 

IV.  Qualiter  -Karolus  Magnus  do- 
muerit  et  subjugaverit  jugo  Christi 
Hyspanias. 

V.  Varia. 

In  the  first  Book  or  part  occurs  the 
Mass  with  a  Farse  or  dramatic  and  musical 
liturgy  credited  usually  to  Fulbert,  but 
retouched  perhaps  a  little  at  Compostella. 
Among  the  Hymns  and  Tropes  many 
are  attributed  to  great  names,  Fulbert  of 
Chartres,  the  Patriarch  William  of  Jerusa¬ 
lem,  S.  Fortunatus;  or  others  lesser  but 
still  historical,  Bishop  Hatto  of  Troyes, 
Joscelin  of  Vierzy  Bishop  of  Soissons, 
Alberic  of  Rheims,  Master  Airard  of 
Vezelay.  Others  are  offered  as  the  com¬ 
position  of  Magister  Johannis  Legalis,  of 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 


Pope  Leo  and  Master  Panicha,  of  Albert  of 
Paris,  in  whom  one  would  fain  see  a  hum¬ 
bler  precursor  of  Albertus  Magnus;  and 
one  as  a  Prayer  of  Master  G.,  whom  Fr. 
Dreves, 2  probably  with  reason,  would 
identify  with  Master  Gautier  of  Castel 
Renaud,  elsewhere  presented  as  composing 
music — Magister  Gauterius  de  Castello 
Rainardi.  A  good  many  in  the  collection 
may  be  of  this  kind,  which  is  indeed  the 
same  kind  as  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern; 
a  little  one  of  Master  Anselm’s,  two  or 
three  named  of  Pope  Calixt,  and,  also 
charged  to  the  last-named,  a  quaint  set  of 
macaronic  verses  in  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Hebrew.  Of  Calixtus  it  must  be  admitted 
that  there  is  a  very  ancient  tradition  at 
Santiago  that  he  came  thither.3  Not 
here,  but  after  the  Guide,  along  with  some 
of  those  already  enumerated,  occur  the 
poems  of  Aymery  Picaud,  the  two  hymns 
and  a  third  in  unrhymed  quantitative 
verse,  in  Sapphics  of  a  sort,  which  the 
original  editor  annotates  with  touching 
pride.  But  the  best  in  the  collection  is 
the  superb  drama  of  the  Mass,  intended 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


43 


i-De  ddnde 
eres 

peregrino? 


The 

Drama  of 
the  Mass 


I 


44 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  bull¬ 
voiced 
mimes 

Ensamples 

for  antiphonal  choirs,  at  least  two  great 
solo  voices,  and  a  chorus  that  included, 
along  with  masses  of  trained  singers,  at 
times  the  entire  congregation  of  the  crowded 
church.  Only  to  read  it,  you  hear  the 
bellowing  of  the  bull -voiced  mimes  and  the 
roar  of  A  men  and  Eleison:  of  this  com¬ 
position  more  will  be  said  elsewhere  in 
the  proper  place.  The  Hymns  and  Re¬ 
sponsions  in  prose,  with  musical  notation 
arranged  usually  for  two  or  three  voices, 
in  the  Appendix  that  follows  the  Itinerary, 
differ  from  the  rest  only  in  the  date  of 
transcription ;  some  are  repetitions  from  the 
earlier  part,  one  is  dated  ngo;  all  are  in 
another  hand  from  the  Codex  proper. 
There  is  no  more  reason  to  doubt  the 
good  faith  of  the  collector  than  to  believe 
in  the  authenticity  of  these  vague  and 
traditional  attributions — it  is  enough  that 
Aymery  believed  them. 

The  second  Book  contains  a  choice  of 
twenty-odd  miracles  or  Ensamples,  mostly 
contemporary:4  about  such  a  collection  as 
you  would  find  at  Lourdes.  Of  these  the 
second  belongs  to  the  time  of  Bishop 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

45 

Theodomir  and  is  credited  to  Bede;  the 
third  befell  in  1108;  the  fourth  is  told  on 
the  faith  of  Master  Hubert,  the  pious 
canon  of  the  church  of  S.  Mary  Magda¬ 
len  of  Vezelay;  the  sixth  and  seventeenth 
are  credited  to  S.  Anselm,  and  the  eight¬ 
eenth  befell  a  Count  of  S.  Gilles  “not 
long  since.”  All  the  rest,  with  some  of 
these,  belong  to  the  lifetime,  and  most  to 
the  episcopate,  of  the  great  Archbishop. 
Arnold  of  Ripoll  adds  two  more  that  he 
found  elsewhere  in  the  Codex,  in  one  of 
which  figures  Abbot  Alberic  of  Vezelay 
(1138-43),  a  member  of  the  household  of 
Cluny.  He  copied  out  parts  for  those  at 
home,  some  of  which  might  be  read  in 
church  and  some  at  dinner,  some  parts, 
that  is,  being  doctrine  and  others  pious 
opinion.5 

The  third  book,  which  tells  the  journey 
of  S.  James’s  body,  Mgr.  Duchesne  has 
examined  in  the  finest  critical  spirit,  be¬ 
side  which  seem  dull  and  doubtful  the  pa¬ 
tient  labours  of  Fr.  Fidel  Fita  to  reconcile 
nonsense  and  make  forgery  plausible. 
The  fourth  is  the  Chronicle  of  Turpin, 

Miracles  of 
S.  James 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

46 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

A  S P  id¬ 
le  gium 

already  summarized;  the  fifth,  the  Pil¬ 
grim’s  Guide  of  Aymery  Picaud,  liegeman 
of  Vezelay  and  clerk  in  orders — to  which  we 
shall  come  shortly. 6 

The  core  of  the  MS.,  then,  is  a  sort  of 
offertory,  compiled,  in  the  better  parts,  of 
what  the  pilgrims  brought,  though  for¬ 
geries  are  arranged  behind  and  before  and 
on  either  hand,  to  make  all  secure.  It  was 
intended  to  increase  devotion  and  promote 
the  pilgrimage. 7  It  succeeded;  pilgrims 
waited  their  turn  to  make  extracts  and 
copies.  But  it  is  something  more,  a  Spici- 
legium,  a  true  and  faithful  gathering  of 
the  legends  told  along  the  way.  The 
whole  Book  of  S.  James  is  seen  to  be, 
in  this  light,  a  book  and  not  a  miscellany. 
It  gathers  up  the  tales  along  the  road¬ 
side,  sometimes  saintly  legends,  sometimes 
epical.  It  begins  with  the  history  of  the 
Apostle,  continues  with  Charlemagne,  and 
ends  with  a  choice  of  contemporary 
miracles. 

The  legend  of  S.  James  is  told,  in  its 
essentials,  about  as  follows — -in  the  Codex, 
in  the  Golden  Legend,  and  in  the  Recuerdos 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

47 

de  un  mage  that  Fr.  Fidel  Fita  made  in  the 
year  of  grace  1880: 

James  the  apostle,  son  of  Zebedee, 
preached  after  the  ascension  of  our  Lord 
in  the  Jewry  and  Samaria,  and  after,  he 
was  sent  into  Spain  for  to  sow  there  the 
word  of  Jesu  Christ.  But  when  he  was 
there  he  profited  but  little,  for  he  had 
converted  unto  Christ’s  law  but  nine 
disciples,  of  whom  he  left  two  there,  for 
to  preach  the  word  of  God,  and  took  the 
other  seven  with  him  and  returned  again 
into  Judea. 

When  the  blessed  S.  James  was  be¬ 
headed,  his  disciples  took  the  body  away 
by  night  for  fear  of  the  Jews,  and  brought 
it  into  a  ship,  and  committed  unto  the 
will  of  our  Lord  the  sepulture  of  it,  and 
went  withal  into  the  ship  without  sail 
or  rudder.  And  by  the  conduct  of  the 
angel  of  our  Lord  they  arrived  in  Galicia 
in  the  realm  of  Lupa.  There  was  in 
Spain  a  queen  that  had  to  name,  and 
also  by  deserving  of  her  life,  Lupa,  which 
is  as  much  to  say  in  English  as  a  she- 
wolf.  And  then  the  disciples  of  S. 
James  took  out  his  body  and  laid  it  upon 

The 

Golden 

Legend 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

48 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Lupa,  by 
interpreta¬ 
tion  a 
she-wolf 

a  great  stone.  And  anon  the  stone  re¬ 
ceived  the  body  into  it  as  it  had  been 
soft  wax,  and  made  to  the  body  a  stone  as 
it  were  a  sepulchre.  Then  the  disciples 
went  to  Lupa  the  queen,  and  said  to  her: 
Our  Lord  Jesu  Christ  hath  sent  to  thee 
the  body  of  his  disciple,  so  that  him  that 
thou  wouldest  not  receive  alive  thou  shalt 
receive  dead,  and  then  they  recited  to 
her  the  miracle  by  order;  how  they  were 
come  without  any  governaile  of  the  ship 
and  required  of  her  place  convenable  for 
his  holy  sepulture.  And  when  the  queen 
heard  this,  she  sent  them  unto  a  right 
cruel  man,  by  treachery  and  by  guile,  as 
Master  Beleth  saith,  and  some  say  it 
was  to  the  king  of  Spain,  for  to  have  his 
consent  of  this  matter,  and  he  took  them 
and  put  them  in  prison.  And  when  he 
was  at  dinner  the  angel  of  our  Lord 
opened  the  prison  and  let  them  escape 
away  all  free.  And  when  he  knew  it,  he 
hastily  sent  knights  after,  for  to  take 
them,  and  as  these  knights  passed  to  go 
over  a  bridge,  the  bridge  brake  and  over¬ 
threw,  and  they  fell  in  the  water  and 
were  drowned.  And  when  he  heard 
that  he  repented  him  and  doubted  for 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 


himself  and  for  his  people,  and  sent  after 
them,  praying  them  for  to  return,  and 
that  he  would  do  like  as  they  would 
themselves.  And  then  they  returned 
and  converted  the  people  of  that  city 
unto  the  faith  of  God.  And  when  Lupa 
the  queen  heard  this,  she  was  much 
sorrowful,  and  when  they  came  again  to 
her  they  told  to  her  the  agreement  of  the 
king.  She  answered:  Take  the  oxen 
that  I  have  in  yonder  mountain,  and 
join  ye  and  yoke  them  to  my  cart  or 
chariot,  and  bring  ye  then  the  body  of 
your  master,  and  build  ye  for  him  such 
a  place  as  ye  will,  and  this  she  said  to 
them  in  guile  and  mockage,  for  she  knew 
well  that  there  were  no  oxen  but  wild 
bulls,  and  supposed  that  they  should 
never  join  them  to  her  chariot,  and  if 
they  were  so  joined  and  yoked  to  the 
chariot,  they  would  ran  hither  and 
thither,  and  should  break  the  chariot, 
and  throw  down  the  body  and  slay  them. 
But  there  is  no  wisdom  against  God. 
And  then  they,  that  knew  nothing  of  the 
evil  courage  of  the  queen,  went  up  on  the 
mountain,  and  found  there  a  dragon 
casting  fire  at  them,  and  ran  on  them. 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


50 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

From 

Colchis’ 

strand 

And  they  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  and 
he  brake  on  two  pieces.  And  then  they 
made  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  the  bulls, 
and  anon  they  were  meek  as  lambs. 
Then  they  took  them  and  yoked  them 
to  the  chariot,  and  took  the  body  of  S. 
James  with  the  stone  that  they  had  laid  it 
on,  and  laid  on  the  chariot,  and  the  wild 
bulls  without  governing  or  driving  of 
anybody  drew  it  forth  into  the  middle  of 
the  palace  of  the  queen  Lupa.  And  when 
she  saw  this  she  was  abashed  and  be¬ 
lieved  and  was  christened,  and  delivered 
to  them  all  that  they  demanded,  and 
dedicated  her  palace  into  a  church  and 
endowed  it  greatly,  and  after  ended  her 
life  in  good  works.8 

Some  of  this  seems  to  come  too  near  to 
Colchis’  strand,  and  the  devout  of  today 
have  quietly  dropped  overboard  the  dragon. 
It  must  be  said  in  fairness,  that  the  dragon 
has  as  good  a  right  there  as  the  bulls:  for 
the  twelfth  century  as  for  the  fifteenth, 
they  would  sink  or  swim  together.  After 
this,  the  disciples  set  out  on  the  Roman 
road  that  runs  from  Padron  to  Betanzos,9 
and  buried  S.  James  in  a  fair  marble 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

is 


S.  James:  Prom  Berruguete’s  Tomb  of  Cardinal  Tavera 


THE  PILGRIMAGE 

53 

sepulchre,  which  they  may  have  found 

Area 

there  disused,  or  which  a  convert  and  his 
family  might  offer  as  once  Nicodemus  did; 
Moors  came,  and  the  memory  of  it  was 
lost  even  in  Galicia. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  cen¬ 
tury,  in  830  or  813,  perhaps,  a  hermit 
named  Pelayo  lived  among  the  rocks  of 
a  steep  hillside;  by  night  he  watched  the 
stars,  and  once  he  saw  one  burning  strangely 

marmorea 

low  and  strangely  bright.  There  is  another 

The  little 

version,  however,  by  which  many  little 
lights  were  seen  hovering  and  flickering 
above  the  spot.  The  villagers  near  by  saw 
it  as  well,  the  Bishop  Theodomir  was  ap¬ 
prized:  excavations  revealed  the  tombs  of 
the  Apostle  and  his  followers,  and  Alfonso 
the  Chaste  in  person  beheld  and  adored. 
Remain  only  the  episodes  when  S.  James 
appeared  again  and  showed  himself,  like 
Castor,  on  a  huge  white  horse.  At  the  battle 
of  Clavijo,  in  the  Rioja  near  Najera,  to  the 
cry  of  “Santiago,  Cierra  Espafia ! ”  he  swept 
the  field  clear  of  the  Hagarenes:  this  was  in 
845.  At  Simancas,  in  939,  with  mitre  and 
crozier  he  was  manifested  along  with  S. 

lights 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

I 

54 


The  White 
Horsemen 


In  all,  38 
apparitions 


WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 


Millan,  the  two  together,  “white  horse¬ 
men  that  ride  on  white  horses,  the  Knights 
of  God.”10  He  appeared  at  Baeza  before 
1149,  and  helped  in  the  winning  of  Estre- 
madura,  at  Ciudad  Rodrigo  and  Merida, 
and  elsewhere,  and  in  America,  though  at 
times  the  credit  was  transferred  to  others. 

Two  traits,  rich  in  human  nature,  belong, 
if  anywhere,  here.  M.  Paul  Claudel,  a  Neo- 
Catholic  man  of  letters  sometime  resident  in 
Paris,  of  the  most  excessive  and  unctuous 
piety,  is  persuaded  that  S.  James  suffered 
martyrdom  in  Spain.  In  brief,  though  his 
theme  is  The  Year  of  God,  he  does  not  know 
the  first  thing  about  the  Apostle: 

S.  Jacques  a  la  fin  de  Juillet  a  peri  en 
Espagne  par  1’epee: 

Entre  les  deux  mois  ardents  il  git,  la 
tete  coupee.11 

On  the  other  hand,  Father  Fita,  a  very 
learned  Jesuit,  believing  what  he  is  told, 
yet  saves  and  reserves  his  scholar’s  wit 
and  his  Spanish  humour.  Apropos  of  the 
eldest  altar  of  S.  James  and  an  inscription 
on  it,  he  writes:  —  “The  monks  believed 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  PILGRIMAGE 


55 


aright,  it  they  thought  the  disciples  of  S. 
James  made  an  altar  with  these  stones 
over  the  grave  of  the  Apostle,  after  the 
most  ancient  use  of  the  church:  but  they 
believed  not  well,  if  they  imagined  that  with 
the  holy  body  from  Jerusalem  came  along 
a  Celto  Hispanic  column  and  tablet!”12 

Because  some  Neo-Catholics  love  to 
suffuse  with  emotion  their  ignorance; 
and  because  even  scholarly  Jesuits  some¬ 
times  are  bound  to  twist  and  turn  the 
impossible  in  the  hope  of  making  some¬ 
thing  credible — which  is  the  task  of  making 
ropes  of  sand — there  must  be  no  pause 
before  presenting  another  sort  of  priest,  of 
the  kind  not  uncommon  in  France,  who 
loving  their  God  with  heart  and  mind  have 
thought  to  serve  Him  by  blowing  up  old 
lies  and  making  plain  the  way  of  truth. 
Mgr.  Duchesne  of  the  French  School  in 
Rome,  at  Brussels  in  1894 13  and  at  Bor¬ 
deaux  in  1900  squarely  encountered  this 
huge  mass  of  legend,  in  the  light  of  learn¬ 
ing,  and  cleared  the  ground.  He  did  to 
his  church  son’s  duty  and  knight’s  service. 
His  reward  is  in  the  Index . 14 


The  Pillar 


A  French 
priest 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


56 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

S.  James 
never 
in  Spain 

Follows  a  very  brief  abstract  of  his 
argument,15  omitting  points  that  seem  of 
pure  scholarship, — as,  for  instance,  the 
true  history  of  the  arcae  marmoricae: 

S.  James’s  journey  to  Spain  is  not  men¬ 
tioned  by  Prudentius:  no  references  to  it 
have  been  found  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth, 
seventh,  and  eighth  centuries.  Orosius  of 
Braga,  Idaeus,  Bishop  of  Aquae  Flaviae,  S. 
Martin  of  Braga,  Visigothic  ecclesiastical 
writers,  S.  Isidore  of  Seville,  etc.,  all  are 
silent  in  their  authentic  writings.  So 
also  in  Gaul:  for  instance,  Gregory  of 
Tours,  with  all  his  knowledge  of  the  sanc¬ 
tuaries  of  Spain,  makes  no  reference; 
Fortunatus,  even,  in  an  epistle  to  S.  Martin 
of  Braga,  writes:  “It  is  to  S.  Martin  the 
Elder  that  Gaul  owes  the  light  of  the  Gospel, 
it  is  to  the  new  Martin  that  Galicia  owes 
the  same  benefit.  In  his  person  she 
enjoys  the  virtue  of  Peter,  the  doctrine  of 
Paul,  the  help  of  James  and  John.”  In 
the  collection  of  apostolic  histories  known 
under  the  name  of  Abdias,  although  there 
is  plenty  of  legend,  “apocryphal  and 
fabulous  accounts,”  there  is  not  a  word 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

57 

of  the  journey  of  S.  James  to  Galicia  or  of 
his  burial  there.  Pope  Innocent’s  letter, 
416,  denies  any  apostle  but  S.  Peter  in 
Italy,  the  Gauls,  Spain,  Africa,  Sicily,  and 
the  adjacent  isles.  This  may  be  for  rea¬ 
sons  of  his  own,  and  indeed  he  is  insisting 
on  acceptance  of  the  Roman  use.  To  be 
sure,  S.  Jerome  has  a  passage  about  nets 
and  fishers  of  men,  Jerusalem,  Spain,  and 
Illyria,  but  the  geographical  choice  of 
names  is  rhetorical  rather  than  historical. 

The  so-called  Apostolic  Catalogues  are 
hopelessly  apocryphal,  and  entirely  dis¬ 
credited;  this  was  settled  in  1894.  Aldhelm, 
Bishop  of  Malmesbury,  used  the  legend 
found  in  one  of  these,  in  composing  an 
altar-inscription,  at  the  end  of  the  seventh 
century:  S.  Julian  of  Toledo  had  used 
the  same  compilation  as  early  as  686  but 
he  made  S.  James  preach  to  the  Jews,  at 
Jerusalem,  and  deliberately  omitted  the 
Spanish  episode.  It  is  worth  noting  that 
Archbishop  Rodrigo  Ximenez  of  Toledo,  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  treated  it  as  an 
old  wives’  tale. 

Old  Mozarabic  liturgies  before  the 

Apostolic 

Catalogues 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

58 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Mozarabic 

liturgies 

twelfth  century  take  no  particular  interest 
in  S.  James.  The  feast  of  July  25  came 
into  Spain  very  late:  it  is  lacking  from 
many  calendars  of  the  tenth  and  the  elev¬ 
enth  century. 

Before  the  eleventh  century  the  Spanish 
apostolate  of  S.  James,  then,  is  mentioned 
only  in  a  Latin  version  of  the  Byzantine 
Apostolic  Catalogue,  and  in  books  which 
depend  on  this  version.  Neither  this 
Catalogue  in  its  original  Greek  text,  nor 
the  additions  which  characterize  the  Latin 
recensions,  have  any  title  to  represent  an 
authentic  tradition :  certainly  not  a  Spanish 
tradition.  S.  Julian  of  Toledo  knowing 
their  assertion,  as  we  have  seen,  left  it 
out.  The  Catalogue  moreover  does  not 
bury  him  in  Spain.  The  oldest  uncon¬ 
tested  document  is  the  Martyrology  of 
Adon,  c.  860:  ‘‘Hujus  beatissimi  apostoli 
sacra  ossa  ad  Hispanias  translata  et  in 
ultimis  earum  finibus,  videlicet  contra 
mare  Britannicum  condita,  celeberrima 
illarum  gentium  veneratione  excoluntur.” 

Long  before  this,  Spain  was  restless,  in¬ 
submissive,  independently  disposed  in 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

59 

relation  to  Rome.  Galicia  was  the  strong¬ 
hold  of  Prisci  Ilians ;  the  invasion  of  the 
Suevi,  409,  alone  saved  the  bishops  from 
wholesale  eviction;  as  late  as  561  they  were 
still  strong  in  the  north-west  comer  of  the 
province;  i.  e.  in  the  very  diocese  of  Iria 
Flavia.  The  heresy  disappeared  in  the 
seventh  and  eighth  century  and  the  Suevian 
church  was  absorbed  by  the  Visigothic. 
The  fall  of  the  Visigoths  and  the  Moslem 
invasion  touched  the  north-west  lightly 
and  not  for  long.  Charters  of  Alfonso  II 
the  Chaste,  829,  Ramiro  I,  844,  and 
Ordono  I,  859,  are  highly  to  the  point,  but 
they  are  not  universally  admitted  as 
authentic.  They  say  that  the  body  of  S. 
James  was  revealed  during  the  reign  of 
Alfonso,  in  the  time  of  Bishop  Theodomir 
of  Iria  Flavia:  —  that  is  all,  just  “re¬ 
vealed,”  down  to  the  end  of  the  ninth 
century.  The  Chronicon  Sebastiani  and 
the  Chronicon  Albeldense  have  not  a  word 
of  it.  Adon  probably  echoed  some  en¬ 
thusiastic  pilgrim  who  had  picked  up  the 
story  on  the  spot.  Almanzor  took  Com- 
postella  twice,  in  988  and  in  994,  and 

Priscil- 
lians, 
Friends  of 
God 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

6o 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Codex 

as 

authority 

sacked  and  burned  it.  By  1078  the  great 
church  still  standing,  was  begun,  and  the 
pilgrimage  was  in  full  blast. 

The  two  great  books  on  which,  after 
this,  all  hangs,  are  the  Historia  Compos- 
tcllana  and  the  Codex  called  “of  Calixtus 
II”  (called  here  The  Book  of  St.  James). 
The  former  deals  chiefly  with  contemporary 
events,  down  to  1139,  and  is  virtually  a 
history  of  Bishop  Diego  Gelmirez;  the 
second  contains  (as  mentioned  before) 
The  Translation  of  S.  James  from  Jerusalem 
to  Spain,  a  letter  of  S.  Leo  the  pope,  the 
Miracles  of  S.  James,  collected,  nominally, 
by  Calixtus  II.  the  Passion  of  S.  Eutropius 
of  Saintes,  the  history  of  Charlemagne  by 
the  pseudo-Turpin,  and  an  apocryphal  letter 
of  Innocent  II  authenticating  the  whole. 

The  Translatio  is  a  clear  plagiarism  from 
the  History  of  the  Seven  Spanish  Bishops 
martyred  in  the  south  of  Spain,  at  Acci, 
now  Guadix,  near  Granada.  That  story, 
wThich  includes  the  seven  disciples,  the 
Lady  Luparia,  with  the  bridge  that  breaks 
down,  and  the  Monte  Sagro,  was  known  in 
Italy  and  France  by  the  ninth  century. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

61 

The  letter  of  Pope  Leo  (possibly  meant 
for  Leo  III,  795-816)  does  not  attest  the 
discovery  of  the  relics,  only  their  transla¬ 
tion —  that  the  body  of  S.  James  was 
brought  by  his  disciples  from  Jerusalem 
into  Galicia.  Three  redactions  of  this 
letter  exist:  the  oldest  from  a  MS.  of  S. 
Martial  of  Limoges,  in  Visigothic  writ¬ 
ing  of  the  tenth  century,  added  on  a  blank 
page.  Another,  from  a  MS.  in  the  Escorial, 
was  published  by  Fita  and  Guerra  in 
Recuerdos  de  un  viaje  a  Santiago  de 
Compostela.  The  third  is  that  of  the 
Liber  Calixtinus.  The  first  depends  on  the 
Translatio  and  the  Apostolic  Catalogues’; 
the  second  on  the  work  of  Adon;  the  third, 
quite  different,  depends  on  the  Translatio 
and  on  the  Passio  S.  Jacobi  in  the  pseudo- 
Abdias.  The  shrine  being  by  this  time 
troubled  by  competition  in  other  places 
that  claim  some  portion  of  the  relics  of  S. 
James,  this  version  insists  on  “integrum 
corpus,”  separates  itself  from  the  legend 
of  the  Seven  Spanish  Bishops,  and  makes 
the  two  disciples  who  escorted  the  body, 
Athanasius  and  Theodore.  On  this  ver- 

Pope  Leo’s 
letter 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

6  2 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  third 
recension 

sion  depends  (1139)  the  Eistoria  Cotup  oste- 
llana.  It  may  have  been  known  in  1077, 
if  we  may  so  conclude  from  an  act  of  that 
year  between  Bishop  Diego  Pelaez  and 
Fagild,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  Anteal- 
tares.  At  any  rate,  it  belongs  to  the  re¬ 
building  of  the  church. 1 6  The  work  was 
begun  in  1082  (so  Mgr.  Duchesne)  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that  they  looked  at  the 
crypt,  discovered  that  therein  were  only 
three  bodies,  therefore  revised  the  legend. 

Fita  and  Guerra  give  no  reason  for  saying 
precisely  that  the  crypt  under  the  church 
is  of  the  first  years  of  the  Christian  era. 
One  can  only  admit  that  it  is  Roman. 
Probably  a  great  Roman  tomb  was  really 
discovered  in  the  first  third  of  the  ninth 

Conclu¬ 

sions 

century. 

In  summing  up,  Mgr.  Duchesne  says — 

1.  The  belief  goes  back  to  a  Latin 
recension  of  the  A  poslolic  Catalogues ,  in  no 
sense  traditional  documents  or  trustworthy. 

2.  About  830  an  antique  tomb  was 
found,  which  was  considered  S.  James’s; 
the  cult  is  attested  by  Adon  in  France 
within  thirty  years. 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

63 

3.  About  this  time,  the  middle  of  the 
ninth  century,  was  compiled  an  account 
of  the  Translation.  A  body  brought  by 
the  Seven  Saints  from  near  Granada,  pre¬ 
supposes  the  preaching  of  S.  James  in  Spain 
during  his  life. 

4.  At  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  was 
forged  a  letter  of  Pope  Leo  ( any  Leo) 
stated  a  contemporary  of  S.  James. 

5.  Nearer  the  end  of  the  ninth  century, 
or  early  in  the  tenth,  the  letter  was  revised; 
the  Seven  Bishops  were  left  out  and  the 
two  disciples  put  in. 

6.  In  1136  the  Historia  Compostellana 
fixed  the  tradition. 

7.  All  that  remains  is  the  Galician  cult, 
from  the  first  third  of  the  ninth  century. 

Mgr.  Duchesne  leaves  in  a  footnote  the 
recognition  of  the  relics  which  had  been 
removed  in  1589  (when  Drake  went  to 
Corunna  sworn  to  bum  and  disperse  them) , 
and  were  recovered  in  1879, — ratified  in 
1884. 

Call  him 
un  the 
deep  sea. .  . 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

64 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

IV 

THE  STATIONS  OF  THE  WAY 

Airinos,  airinos,  aires, 

A  irinos  da  mina  term, 
Airinos,  airinos,  aires, 
Airinos,  levaime  a  ela. 

Aymery  Picaud,  Poitevin  and  clerk  in 
orders  of  Parthenay-le-Vieux,  came  to 
Compostella  with  a  Flemish  dame  called 
Girberga,  and  probably  her  husband, 
Oliver  of  Iscan,  vassal  of  land  dependent 
on  S.  Mary  Magdalen  of  Vezelay;  and  for 
the  redemption  of  their  souls  they  made  a 
gift  of  the  Codex,  the  Book  of  S.  James, 
to  the  apostle.  The  Latin  text  here  is  a 
little  difficult,  through  some  corruption:  it 
is  possible  that  Aymery  was  travelling  with 
Girberga  as  her  secretary  or  even  as  her 
husband,  though  the  Council  of  Rheims  had 
again  forbidden  the  clergy  to  marry.  In 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 


that  case  Oliver  would  be  Aymery’s  name, 
Parthenay  his  birthplace  and  V ezelay  his 
!  suzerain,  and  in  truth,  he  copies  out  a 
miracle  on  the  faith  of  an  abbot  of  V ezelay, 
like  one  concerned,  though  he  also  tran¬ 
scribes  the  Passion  of  S.  Eutropius  of 
Saintes,  and  a  passage  about  him  from  S. 
Gregory  of  Tours,  being  a  good  Poite- 
vin.  We  must  be  content  probably  to 
know  little  more  about  him  except  that  he 
was  a  poet,  and  wrote  a  rousing  good 
marching-song  which  starts  off  to  the  tune 
of  Gaudeamus  Igitur,  and  a  longer  poem, 
also  rhymed,  summarizing  the  current 
miracles.1  These  will  be  found  in  the 
Appendix.  Furthermore,  it  is  generally 
held  that  he  was  not  probably  the  same 
with  the  Aymery  who  was  chancellor  of 
Santiago,  from  1130  to  1141. 2  Of  this  I 
am  not  quite  sure,  as  will  presently  appear. 
He  is  not  in  any  circumstances  to  be  con¬ 
fused  with  Aymerico  de  Anteiaco,  who  was 
treasurer  of  the  cathedral  of  Santiago  in 
1326,  wrote  the  manuscript  called  Tumbo  B, 
and  probably  the  Latin  Chronicle  of  Arch¬ 
bishop  Berenguel. 3  This  was  the  Arch- 


A  N  D  MONOGRAPHS 


65 


The 

Poitevin 


IV,  V 


66 

1 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Bishop 

Beren- 

guel’s 

Legenda 

bishop  who,  a  Frenchman  from  Rodez  in  the 
south  of  France  and  a  Dominican, 4  liked 
but  ill  the  account  of  Jacobus  a  Varagine 
(whom  we  know  better  as  Jacques  de  Vora- 
gine)  and  ordered  Bemardus  Guidonis  to 
write  something  more  to  the  purpose : 5 

.  .  .  ut  Legendam  alteram  ex  sincerioribus 
actis  colligeret  et  ederet,  quod  et  fecit, 
quod  tamen  non  impedivit  ne  Legenda 
Jacobi  de  Voragine  sua  brevitate  com- 
moda  passim  ab  omnibus  conquireretur 
et  avide  legeretur. 

The  fifth  book  of  the  Codex  that  he  gave, 
is  the  Pilgrims'  Guide,  written  avowedly  in 
part  by  Aymery,  and  by  him  attributed 
in  part  to  Pope  Calixt,  whose  endorsement 
is  prefixed.  ‘‘There  are  moreover  many 
yet  living,”  he  says,  “who  can  testify  to 
the  truth  of  what  is  writ  therein.” 

Since  upon  the  approximate  date  within 
the  twelfth  century  scholars  are  in  complete 
disagreement,  a  word  of  common  sense  may 
be  permitted.  The  only  positive  date 
which  occurs  in  the  Codex  as  a  terminus  a 
quo  is  in  that  difficult  passage  about  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

67 

deaths  of  kings,  quoted  and  discussed  later 
in  another  connexion,  which  reckons  from 
the  beginning  of  the  cathedral  works  as 
fifty-nine  years  to  the  death  of  Alfonso 
of  Aragon  (1134),  sixty -two  to  the  death 
of  Henry  of  England,  and  fully  sixty -three 
to  the  death  of  Louis  the  Fat  of  France, 
which  occurred  in  1138.  Common  sense 
suggests  that  these  three  events,  not  very 
important  to  Santiago  except  in  the  case 
of  Alfonso  el  Batallador ,  must  have  been 
recent. 

Deaths  of 
Kings 

Supposing  for  a  moment  that  Aymery 
who  gave  the  book  wrote  it  and  the  three 
hymns  that  bear  his  name,  then  (1)  since  he 
knew  the  men  working  on  the  roads  in 
1:120,  he  went  by  that  year;  (2)  since  chap¬ 
ter  xxi  in  Turpin’s  Chronicle  relates  how 

Hypoth¬ 

eses 

Charlemagne  gave  to  Santiago  all  the  rights 
of  Primacy,  it  would  be  most  useful  at  the 

time  (1120— 1124)  when  Archbishop  Diego 
war,  trying  for  that  rank;  (3)  the  style  of 
chapter  ix  of  the  Guide,  written  avow¬ 
edly  by  Aymery  the  chancellor,  is  precisely 
like  that  of  all  the  others,  so  there  is  evi¬ 
dence  for  supposing  a  single  author — and 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

. 

1 

68 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Not 

forgery  but 
politics: 
compare 
Vol.  III., 
p.  127 

if  Aymery  came  to  Santiago  as  a  poor  clerk 
in  1120  he  could  still  rise  to  be  chancellor 
by  1130,  D.  Diego  had  done  as  well  as  that 
or  better;  (4)  the  attributions  of  the  other 
Hymns  in  the  Codex  are-  plausible  though 
not  convincing:  one  comes  from  Poitiers, 
one  from  Vezelay,  the  Patriarch  William 
of  Jerusalem  was  a  fellow-countryman  of 
Dame  Girberga’s.  There  seems  a  fair 
presumption  of  Aymery ’s  good  faith,  and  a 
probability  that  the  date  should  be  set  in 
the  eleven-thirties,  where  for  his  own  rea¬ 
sons  Gaston  Paris  put  it  half  a  century 
ago.6 

The  forged  authentication  of  Innocent 
II,  on  which,  by  the  way,  we  depend  for 
all  we  know  of  Aymery  Picaud,  is  the 
only  piece  in  a  different  handwriting:  it 
proves  on  examination  not  so  bare-faced  as 
recent  scholars  would  have  you  think.  Of 
the  signatures,  only  two  profess  to  be  auto¬ 
graph:  one,  and  it  is  the  first,  that  of  Ay¬ 
mery  the  chancellor,  who  says  the  book  is 
authentic  and  true,  and  sets  his  hand  there¬ 
to.  The  next  signer,  Gerard,  Cardinal  of  S. 
Croce,  calls  it  precious  and  with  his  own 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

69 

pen  signs;  the  following  five  endorse  the 
Pope  or  praise  the  book,  no  more;  and 
lastly,  Alberic,  Bishop  of  Ostia  (sometime 
abbot  of  Vezelay)  approves,  as  “legalem 
et  carissimum  et  per  omnia  laudabilem 
fore.”7  The  known  historical  dates  of 
the  personages  will  fix  the  intended  date  of 
this  document  as  between  1134  and  1140, 
which  corresponds  with  all  that  can  be 
known  or  inferred  about  the  state  of  the 
building  as  therein  described.  Dr.  Friedel, 
a  competent  palaeographer, 8  has  conjec¬ 
tured  that  the  hand  in  which  the  whole 
Codex  is  written  (he  makes  no  allusion  to 
the  changed  script  that  Fr.  Fita  noted  but 
judged  to  be  still  contemporary)  belongs 
rather  to  the  first  than  the  second  half  of 
the  century.  If  Aymery  the  poor  scholar 
brought  the  kernel  in  1120  when  he  came 
with  Dame  Girberga — and  here  the  kernel 
includes  all  but  Book  V,  the  account  of  the 
journey — and  while  he  was  yet  chancellor 
had  the  fair  copy  made,  bringing  the  ac¬ 
count  of  the  church  up  to  date,  then  the 
original  compilation  would  have  come  from 
France,  have  been  compiled  in  the  interest 

What 

testimony 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

70 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Perhaps 

good 

faith 

of  the  pilgrimage,  would  belong  to  the 
first  third  of  the  twelfth  century,  and 
Aymery’s  good  faith  would  be  safe  from 
suspicion.  Indeed  the  attacks  upon  it 
have  been  mostly  copied  from  book  to 
book  without  examination  of  evidence. 
The  character  of  Aymery  is  my  chief  con¬ 
cern,  as  Turpin’s  Chronicle  was  that  of  Gas¬ 
ton  Paris,  and  M.  Bedier’s  was  the  Chan¬ 
sons  de  Gestes  (while  Dr.  Friedel’s  I  cannot 
make  out) , — for  I  have  kept  company  with 
him  too  long,  and  found  his  testimony  too 
good,  not  to  owe  him  at  least  a  presumption 
of  good  faith. 

These  are  the  chapters: 

The  Guide 

i.  Of  the  Ways  to  S.  James  the 
Apostle. 

ii.  Of  the  Stages  of  the  Way  of  S. 
James  by  Pope  Calixt. 

in.  Of  the  Names  of  Cities  on  the 
Way  of  S.  James. 

iv.  Of  the  Three  Hospices  of  the 
world. 

v.  Of  the  Names  of  those  who  repaired 
the  Way  of  S.  James,  by  Aymery. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

7i 

vi.  Of  Good  and  Bad  Rivers  which 
are  on  the  Way  of  S.  James,  by 
Pope  Calixt. 

vn.  Of  the  Names  of  the  Lands  and  the 
Sorts  of  People,  that  there  be  on  the 
Way  of  S.  James. 

viii.  Of  the  Bodies  of  the  Saints  that 
Rest  upon  the  Way  of  S.  James 
which  are  to  be  Visited  by  Pilgrims. 

ix.  Of  the  City  and  Church  of  S.  James 
the  Apostle  of  Galicia  by  Calixt  the 
Pope  and  Aymery  the  Chancellor. 

x.  Of  the  Number  of  the  Canons. 

xi.  Of  how  Pilgrims  are  to  be  Received. 

Leaving  the  itinerary  on  one  side  for  a 
moment,  we  may  consider  briefly  the 
substance  of  these  chapters.  After  telling 
over  the  principal  stopping-places  on  the 
way,  with  indications  what  they  are  like, 
and  some  repetition,  as  though  Chapter  ii 
and  the  original  of  Chapter  vi  might 
indeed  have  fallen  into  his  hands  as  infor¬ 
mation  already  prepared,  the  clerk  pauses 
and  praises  God  for  the  three  pillars  that 
sustain  God’s  poor  in  the  world,  which  are 

Evidence 
of  two 
recensions 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

72 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Hospices 

and 

rivers 

three  hospices,  one  at  Jerusalem,  one  on  the 
Mount  of  Joy, 9  and, third, that  of  S.  Cristina 
in  the  Port  of  Aspe.  He  recites  a  litany  of 
praise: — Holy  spot,  house  of  God,  refresh¬ 
ment  of  saints,  repose  of  pilgrims,  comfort 
of  the  needy,  health  of  the  sick,  succour  of 
the  quick  and  the  dead !  Next  he  relates  the 
names  of  those  who  took  care  of  the  road 
from  Rabanal  to  Puerto  Marin  in  1120, 
which  affords  the  probable  date  for  his 
famous  pilgrimage,  and  adds  a  prayer 
that  their  souls  may  have  rest  and  peace. 
The  good  rivers  and  bad  he  carefully 
reviews.  Chapter  iii  was  simply  an  en¬ 
larged  and  revised  version  of  ii;  in  vi,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  earlier  notes  (if  such 
there  once  were)  have  dropped  out,  leaving 
what  corresponds  to  iii,  that  tells  what 
water  is  fit  to  drink  and  what  is  deadly, 
naming  towns  not  elsewhere  mentioned, 
like  Torres  and  Castro  de  los  Judios,  which 
preserves  still  a  tomb  dated  in  the  year 
1100:  lastly  a  river  a  couple  of  miles  from 
S.  James,  in  a  woody  place,  which  is  called 
Lavamentula  because  the  pilgrims  there 
wash  their  clothes  and  themselves.  This  is 

i 

FI  IS  PANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

73 

in  Aymery’s  best  vein,  and  most  char¬ 
acteristic.  He  concludes:  “I  have  de¬ 
scribed  the  rivers  that  pilgrims  going  to  S. 
James  should  study  to  avoid  drinking  the 
deadly  and  be  able  to  choose  those  which 
are  fit  to  drink.”  Then  he  frees  his  mind 
about  all  the  folk  amongst  whom  he  passed 
on  the  journey:  the  Poitevins  are  heroes 
and  warriors:  men  of  Saintonge  speak  a 
patois  but  men  of  Bordeaux  a  worse: 
Gascons  are  vain  of  speech,  ragged,  drunken, 
and  gluttonous.  To  the  Basques  he  gives 
an  entire  treatise,  and  of  their  language, 
which  sounds  like  the  barking  of  dogs, 
nearly  a  score  of  necessary  words.  Once 
through  Navarre  and  past  the  wood  of  Oca, 
the  traveller  comes  out  on  Castile  and  the 
Campo,  the  north  of  the  province  of  Val¬ 
ladolid.  This  happy  land  he  loves  for  its 
foison  of  gold  and  silver,  its  stately  houses 
and  strong  horses,  provision  for  all  seasons, 
bread  and  wine,  meat  and  fish,  milk  and 
honey;  but  yet  the  woods  are  desolate. 

In  the  eighth  chapter  he  deals  with  the 
saints  along  the  way.  Now  the  great 
saints  who  were  travellers  have  always 

Natives 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

74 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

To  Saints 
be  thanks 

been  good  to  great  travellers,  and  the  pres¬ 
ent  writer  owes  debts  not  alone  to  S.  James 
in  particular,  and  in  general  to  S.  Ra¬ 
phael,  S.  Roque,  and  S.  Christopher,  but 
also  to  S.  Hilary  for  valuable  information  at 
a  critical  time,  and  to  S.  Julian  of  the  North 
for  harbourage  in  bitter  cold.  Therefore 
of  their  honours  not  one  shall  be  omitted: 

I.  To  be  revered  by  those  who  come 
through  S.  Gilles:  S.  Trophime  at  Arles, 
and  S.  Caesar,  B.  and  M.,  S.  Honorat 
B.,  at  the  Alyscamps.  also  S.  Gin&s, 
[the  player].  Also,  all  the  blessed  dead, 
more  than  a  thousand,  in  the  Alyscamps. 
Item,  S.  Giles  himself,  in  his  glorious 
sanctuary,  [whose  shrine  is  described  at 
full  length,  for  the  imagination  to  figure 
what  were  the  treasures  of  Romanesque 
art].  Four  saints  there  are  whose  relics 
may  not  in  any  wise  be  moved  [and  they 
are  all  found  upon  this  journey]  —  to 
wit,  S.  James,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  S. 
Martin  of  Tours,  S.  Leonard  of  Limoges, 
and  S.  Giles.  [Here  also  was  preserved 
another  Farse  of  Fulbert’s.) 

II.  By  those  who  come  through  Tou¬ 
louse:  S.  William  who  was  a  Count  of 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

75 

Charlemagne’s:  SS.  Modestus  and  Flor- 
entia,  S.  Satuminus. 

III.  For  Burgundians  ancT  Germans,' 
coming  by  Le  Puy,  the  most  sacred  body 
is  S.  Faith’s,  V.  M.,  at  Conques. 

^  IV.  The  wayTiiy  "S. 
really  at  S.  Mary  Magdalen’s  at  Vezelay; 
thereafter  S.  Leonard  is  glorified  at  great 
length:  and  S.  Front  at  Perigueux. 

V.  Pilgrims  from  Tours  will  revere  in 
Orleans  the  True  Cross  and  the  Shrine  of 
Bishop  Evurcius:  then  S.  Martin,  S. 
Hilary,  S.  John  the  Baptist,  [who  has 
left  his  name  to  S.  Jean  d’Angely  but  the 
Jesuits  have  left  to  his  sanctuary  only 
one  arch  and  a  buttress  to  hold  it  up]. 
Saintes,  next,  gives  occasion  for  the  long 
story  of  the  Passion  of  S.  Eutropius. 
At  Blaye  lies  the  Blessed  Roland;  at 
Bordeaux,  S.  Seurin;  and  in  the  Landes 
of  Bordeaux  at  Belin,  four  peers  of 
Charlemagne,  Galdelbode  of  Frisia  and 
Otger  of  Dacier,  Arastagne  of  Britain 
and  Garin  of  Lorraine. 

VI.  The  Spanish  saints  we  shall  en¬ 
counter  in  due  course: — S.  Domingo  de 
la  Calzada,  SS.  Facundus  and  Primitivus, 
S.  Isidore,  and  above  all,  S.  James. 

and  honb'^ 
our  paid  ] 
at  their  j 
shrines  J 

AND  MONOGRAPHS' 

I 

76 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Lord's 
house  at 
the  jour¬ 
ney’s  end 

So  he  ends  with  a  prayer  that  their  merits 
and  their  intercession  may  avail  for  us,  and 
with  a  rolling  Gloria,  per  infinita  saecula 
saeculorum,  Amen! 

The  chapter  which  follows  describes  the 
church  as  Aymery  saw  it:  this,  by  great 
luck  for  us,  was  before  the  addition  of 
Master  Matthew’s  porch.  These  sections 
are  reserved  for  consideration  with  the 
history  of  the  fabric.  Then  the  author 
enumerates  relics  and  treasures,  with  the 
same  intent  as  his  phrases  of  Basque:  — 
just  as  the  Picard  Manier  copied  out  the 
inventory  and  preserved  his  own  collection 
of  Spanish  words  made  for  use  at  need. 
Plainly,  this  sort  of  literature  constitutes 
a  genre  by  itself,  established  and  self-per¬ 
petuating  long  before  Murray  was  born  or 
Baedecker  dreamed  of. 

The  closing  chapter  enforces  the  obliga¬ 
tions  of  evangelical  hospitality,  by  a  string 
of  miracles  that  punished  those  who  re¬ 
fused  it.  At  Nantes  a  surly  weaver  saw 
his  web  miraculously  rent;  at  Villeneuve, 
for  a  woman  who  denied  that  she  had 
bread,  her  store  was  turned  to  stone.  In 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

77 

the  case  of  two  Frenchmen  begging  then- 
way  home,  at  Poitiers,  close  to  S.  Porchaire, 
all  the  street  that  refused  a  lodging  was 
burned,  but  the  fire  stayed  at  the  house  which 
took  them  in.  On  this  testimony  ends  Book 
V :  Ipsum  scribenti  sit  gloria  sitque  legenti. 
To  the  roads,  then,  we  return: — 

Chapter  I.  Of  the  Ways  to  S.  James 
the  Apostle: 

There  are  four  ways  which,  leading  to 
Santiago,  come  into  one  at  Puente  la 
Reyna  in  Spain.  One  goes  by  S.  Gilles, 
Montpellier,  Toulouse  and  the  Port  of 
Aspe:  another  by  S.  Mary  of  Le  Puy  and 
S.  Faith  of  Conques  and  S.  Peter  of 
Moissac:  another  by  S.  Mary  Magdalen 
of  Vezelay  and  S.  Leonard  of  Limoges 
and  the  city  of  Perigueux:  another  by  S. 
Martin  of  Tours  and  S.  Hilary  of  Poitiers 
and  S.  John  of  Angely  and  S.  Eutropius 
of  Saintes  and  the  City  of  Bordeaux. 

Those  by  S.  Faith,  S.  Leonard  and 
S.  Martin  join  at  Ostabal  and  passing 
the  Port  de  Cize,  at  Puente  la  Reyna 
join  the  way  that  comes  by  the  Port  of 
Aspe.  And  one  way  thenceforth  goes 
on  to  S.  James. 

Examina¬ 
tion  of  the 
road-book 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

i 

00 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

Alquimia 
de  la 

experiencia 

In  the  second  chapter,  that  gives  the 
stages  and  the  time  required,  Aymery  re¬ 
peats  apparently  what  was  told  to  him. 
From  the  Port  d’Aspe  (between  Pau  and 
Jaca)  to  Puente  la  Reyna  is  estimated  as 
three  short  days’  journeys:  from  the  Port 
de  Cize  (by  Roncevaux,  between  S.  Jean 
Pied-du-Port  and  Pampeluna)  to  S.  James 
takes  thirteen  days,  some  not  long,  some  so 
long  that  they  must  be  done  on  horseback. 
The  Guide  was  written,  of  a  truth,  chiefly 
for  those  who  go  afoot.  None  of  my 
mules  or  men,  nor  myself,  of  a  truth,  was 
able  to  push  ahead  of  this  itinerary,  yet 
I  am  assured  by  one  who  knows  that  good 
walkers  in  training  can  do  thirty  miles 
a  day  on  a  long  stretch,  and  that  exceeds 
considerably  the  estimate  of  Murray’s  Ford 
for  a  well-used  horse.  From  general 
experience  I  should  say  the  stages  are  all 
possible,  those  indicated  for  horseback, 
from  Estella  to  Najera  and  thence  to 
Burgos,  being  the  hardest,  and  the  last 
three  coinciding  exactly  with  the  personal 
recommendations  of  D.  Angel  del  Castillo, 
who  has  walked  all  over  Galicia. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

79 

The  third  chapter,  Aymery’s  own,  names 
and  discusses  the  towns,  indicates  hospices, 
bridges  and  the  like,  with  a  memorial,  for 
instance,  of  the  spot  where  victor’s  lances 
burgeoned  in  green  leaves,  and  a  note  on 
the  cairns  at  Mountjoy.  For  these  he  ac- 

Cairns 

counts  by  the  pilgrims’  custom  of  picking 
up  a  piece  of  lime-stone  at  Triacastela  and 
carrying  it  to  Castanola  to  make  mortar 
for  the  building  of  Santiago.  He  explains 
that  he  has  given  these  indications  in  order 
that  intending  pilgrims  may  calculate  their 
expenses  beforehand. 

His  comment  on  the  towns  will  be  found 
generally  along  with  the  present  author’s 
and  the  complete  tabulation  of  the  route, 
according  to  the  Book  of  S.  James,  among 
the  Appendices  in  the  last  volume.  There, 

XIV,  1 

that  the  curious  reader  may  perceive 
how  little  the  way  has  changed  in  eight 
centuries,  are  draughted  some  typical 
records  of  the  stations:  first  Aymery’s, 
that  of  the  Chevalier  de  Caumont,  who 
wyent  to  Compostella  in  1417,  and  one 
from  an  English  poem  of  about  1425: 
the  broadside  that  Columbus’s  son  bought 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

8o 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

Itineraries 

in  the  fair  of  Leon  for  twopence  in  1535, 
which  is  entitled  Le  Chcmin  de  Paris  a 
Sand  Jaques  cn  Galice ,  dit  Compostillc, 
et  combien  il  y  a  dc  limes  de  mile  cn  ville. 
Follows  that  from  the  Reportorio  de 
todos  los  Caminos,  of  Juan  Villuga,  Val- 
encian,  printed  in  1547,  for  the  assist¬ 
ance  of  those  who  have  an  appetite  to 
travel — “for  all,”  says  he,  “who  come 
into  this  life  are  travellers” — and  though, 
as  a  Spanish  proverb  affirms,  “Quien 
lengua  ha,  a  Roma  va,  ”10  yet  delay  and 
fatigue  are  inevitable  where  one  misses 
the  way  even  a  little,  and  time  and  dis¬ 
comfort  are  saved  by  a  previous  knowledge 
of  the  certain  and  true  road.  Finally,  he 
indicates  the  pilgrimages  most  in  repute — 
to  the  Six  Angelical  Houses,  Monserrat, 
the  Pilar,  Nueslra  Senora  la  Blanca  at 
Burgos  (whom  I  do  not  otherwise  know), 
Nueslra  Senora  del  Sagrario  at  Toledo, 
and  Her  of  Guadelupe,  and  Her  of  Pena  de 
Francia — that  he  may  profit  by  the  users’ 
prayers  and  acquire  merit  through  their 
gratitude. 

The  Nouvelle  Guide  of  French  Pilgrims 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 


of  1583,  reprinted  by  the  Baron  Bonnault 
d’Houet,  adds  little  even  to  the  fantastic 
disguises  that  place-names  take  for  an 
alien  ear.  The  route  of  the  Picard  pilgrim 
Manier  of  Noyon,  who  made  the  journey 
in  1726,  comes  next  in  order:  he,  like  the 
fantastical  Pdegrino  curioso  in  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century,  offers  entertainment  by 
the  way  and  figures  in  the  chapters  which 
follow:  an  Itinerary  of  Spain  dated  at 
Alcala,  1798,  completes  the  series.  The 
reader  will  see,  having  perused  this  volume 
as  well,  how  little  the  journeys  varied:  how 
Estella,  praised  for  bread  and  wine  and 
all  manner  of  good  victuals  in  the  twelfth 
century,  still  stirs  regretful  longings  today; 
and  how  the  eels  of  the  Mi  ho  that  were 
lauded  by  the  Licentiate  Luis  de  Molina 
at  Puerto  Marin,  were  served  in  a  noble 
pasty  to  the  traveller  who  now  testifies. 

The  road  never  changes.  The  English  route 
from  Pnrchas  his  Pilgrims  is  found  in  an 
early  fifteenth  century  poem  which  Purchas 
took  out  of  a  MS.  of  Sir  Robert  Cotton’s:  it 
is  most  vile  doggerel  and  contains  seventeen 
hundred  and  fifty-four  lines.  It  is  headed: 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


81 


and 

itinerants 


Purchas 

his 

Pilgrims 


82 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Pilgrims’ 

Songs 

Here  beginneth  the  way  that  is 
marked  and  made  with  Mountjoies  from 
the  Land  of  England  into  Sent  James  in 
Galis,  and  from  thence  to  Rome,  and 
from  thence  to  Jerusalem,  and  so  again 
into  England ;  and  the  names  of  all  the 
cities  by  their  way,  and  names  of  their 
silver  that  they  use  by  all  these  ways.11 

The  account  is  excessively  confused  in 
places,  but  I  have  thought  well  to  reprint 
and  discuss  the  itinerary  because  it  shows 
already  in  circulation  the  travellers’  tales 
of  a  cleft  in  the  mountain  out  of  which 
come  grievous  cryings  and  groanings. 

In  Chansons  des  Pelerins  de  S.  Jacques , 
which  was  reprinted  by  the  Abbe  Camille 
Daux  from  sources  which  are  none  of  them 
earlier,  I  believe,  than  broadsides  printed 
at  Toulouse  in  1615,  Valenciennes  1616, 
and  Troyes  in  1718  (permitted,  there, 
because  already  of  great  age)  the  data 
are  probably  much  older  than  the  form. 
Here  you  find,  at  the  Mont-Etuves,  in 
Asturias,  the  same  terror,  with  cruel  cold; 
and  a  Pont  qui  Tremble,  before  which  the 
pilgrims  said,  one  to  another,  “Comrade, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

83 

you  go  first.”  The  songs,  while  they  go 
to  different  airs,  are  much  alike  in  substance 
and  in  tone;  plaintive,  interminable,  strung 
out  with  the  itinerary  of  the  journey, 
wailing  on  like  the  endless  litanies  that 
children’s  shrill  voices  sing  on  hot  summer 
evenings,  or  like  the  Canticle  of  Lourdes 
with  its  sixty  odd  verses : 

Parmi  les  monts  et  praieries 

Nous  chantions  la  Litanie, 

Ou  quelque  bonne  chanson; 

Et  racontions  a  l’envie 

Ce  que  nous  sgavions  de  bon. 

This  was  in  the  seventeenth  century :  al¬ 
ready  since  the  fifteenth  the  old  rough 
ways  by  Pyrenean  passes  were  commonly 
disused,  that  by  the  Port  of  Aspe  and  that 
by  the  Valley  of  Roncevaux;  and  replaced 
by  the  coast  road  which  runs  by  Bayonne, 
Iran,  Vitoria,  and  then,  through  the  defile 
of  Pancorbo,  turns  aside  in  the  mountains 
of.  Oca  and  comes  out  at  Burgos.  A  great 
detour  which  they  include  is  that  to  S. 
Salvador  of  Oviedo,  one  much  recom¬ 
mended.  A  Spanish  proverb  says  that  to 

and 

Canticle 
of  Lourdes 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

84 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The 

Bridge  of 
Dread 

visit  S.  James  and  omit  S.  Saviour  is  to 
call  on  the  servant  and  neglect  the  master. 
It  is  here,  in  the  mountains  of  Asturias 
and  on  the  Cantabrian  shore,  that  they 
place  the  more  than  half  legendary  Mont- 
Etuves  and  Pont  qui  Tremble.  The  latter 
Manier  describes  in  his  practical  Picard 
literality:  it  is  the  name  given  to  a  sort  of 
ferry  where  at  one  point  the  road  crosses 
an  estuary,  and  pilgrims  and  animals  are 
conveyed  together  in  what  the  railways 
call  a  “barge,”  big  enough  to  take  fifty 
at  a  time.  The  spray  and  the  noise  of  the 
waves  are  alarming,  hence — by  reason  of 
the  danger  you  are  in  (he  explains)  it  is 
called  Pont  qui  T rernble. 

Of  this  route  from  Oviedo  to  Compostella 
Sr.  Villa-amil12  says  that  the  old  highway 
between  Villalba  and  Oviedo  is  still  in  good 
repair  up  to  within  four  kilometres  of 
Mondonedo.  Also,  ten  kilometres  to  the 
south  was  an  albergaria  which  was  al¬ 
ready  old  in  1257.  Beyond  Mondonedo 
it  continued  by  Villanueva  de  Lorenzana 
(formerly  Villa  de  Ponte) :  for  this  he  cites 
the  record  of  gifts  and  sales,  one  of  1578 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

85 

and  the  other  1571,  which  mentions  by 
name  the  Camino  frances  where  runs  the 
modem  road  to  Foz  and  Ribadeo.  The 
Franciscan  monastery  of  S.  Martin  de 
Villarente  or  de  los  Picos  was  in  the 
fourteenth  century  a  place  to  which  came 
many  pilgrims  and  romeros  of  those  who 
go  to  the  Apostle  S.  James.  From  Mon- 
donedo  it  goes  by  Goilan  to  the  parish 
church  of  S.  Maria  de  Vian,  at  which  forks 
the  old  road  from  Mondohedo  to  Castro- 
verde  and  Lugo.  Beside  S.  Mary  of  the 
Crossways,  here,  was  the  much  frequented 
chapel  of  the  Trinity,  and  here,  not  long 
ago,  was  found  a  gold  piece  of  Matthias 
Corvinus,  lost  by  some  pilgrim.  From  the 
first,  thinks  Sr.  Villa-amil,  the  old  Way  ran 
to  the  north  of  Lugo,  leaving  what  is  now 
the  province  of  Lugo  by  the  Bridge  of 
Garcia  Rodriguez  and  by  Puentedeume. 
Alfonso  IX  and  S.  Ferdinand  often  trav¬ 
elled  on  it.  Only  a  few  years  before  his 
writing  (in  1878)  there  was  not  a  road  in 
the  region,  between  the  Madrid-Corunna 
highway  and  the  coast,  except  those  used  by 
pilgrims  first  and  now  by  Maragatos. 

Our  Lady 
of  the 
Crossways 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

86 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Southerly 
route  from 
Zamora 

There  are  traces,  also,  of  another  road 
that  came  in  perhaps  from  the  south, 
passed  through  Incio  and  reached  Puerto 
Marin.  Dozy 1 3  quotes  a  gloss  from  the 
Poem  of  the  Cid  that  runs  a  line  through 
Benavente:  and  Lopez  Ferreiro  publishes 
an  itinerary14  that  comes  up  by  Verm, 
Allariz,  Orense,  Lalin  and  so  to  Santiago 
by  the  coach -road. 

The  question  of  the  Roman  roads  can¬ 
not  here  be  ignored,  though  it  is  more 
difficult  than  would  appear  to  the  classical 
scholar.  Such  roads  exist  still  in  Spain, 
long  stretches  of  them  in  places.  With 
sudden  picturesqueness  Quadrado,  writing 
of  Roman  remains  in  the  Vierzo,  calls  up 
one  as  he  has  seen  it: 

Two  and  a  half  miles  from  Bergido, 
he  says,  on  the  military  road  that  went 
to  Lugo,  in  the  skirts  of  a  mountain, 
there  survives  an  arch,  and  remains  of 
buildings  mark  the  site  of  an  ancient 
village  close  to  the  junction  of  the 
Cabrera  and  the  Sil,  near  the  Bridge  of 
Domingo  Florez;  but  the  Roman  power 
is  chiefly  shown  in  the  remains  of  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

87 

magnificent  “street”  [calzada]  that  may 
still  be  followed  by  the  eye  from  afar, 
across  the  scrub,  like  the  silvery  wake  of 
a  ship  on  the  broad  sea. 15 

There  is,  of  course,  the  A  ntonine  Itiner¬ 
ary,  but  until  lately  that  has  remained  for 
most  of  Europe  in  the  hands  of  mere 
schoolmen,  creatures  of  pen  and  paper. 
The  various  authorities  cited  in  the  old 
edition,  disagree  rather  fantastically  about 
the  actual  places  represented  by  the  Roman 
names.  It  means  very  little  to  a  German 
scholar  that  Interamnio  Flavio  may  be 
Bembibre  or  may  be  Ponferrada,  that 
Aquis  Originis  may  be  Chaves  or  may  be 
Banos  de  Bande,  that  Brigantium  may  be 
Betanzos  or  may  be  Ferrol,  but  if  a  man 
would  look  out  the  places  on  a  large-scale 
map  to  draw  lines  between  them,  he  might 
be  annoyed  by  the  divergent  possibilities. 
It  would  matter  a  good  deal  to  an  engineer 
trying  to  survey,  or  to  a  traveller  wanting 
somewhere  to  sleep  and  to  put  up  his 
tired  horse.  When  after  Ad  Duos  Pontes, 
possibly  Pontevedra,  the  next  station, 
Grandimiro,  is  offered  alternatively  as 

Imperial 

Itineraries 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

88 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Road¬ 
mapping  in 
the  study 

Camarinas  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  or 
Mondonedo  in  the  Cantabrian  hills,  even 
the  purblind  pedant  might  be  shocked  into 
a  query,  and  into  some  faint  recognition 
that  the  two  towns  are  in  opposite  quarters 
of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Galicia. 1 6 

Hitherto,  then,  the  scholars  have  not 
shown  up  well  beside  the  poets  of  the 
Chansons  de  Gestes  or  even  the  homely 
pilgrims  and  those  who  wrote  down  their 
stages  for  them.  In  1892,  however,  Sr. 
D.  Antonio  Blasquez  published  a  Nuevo 
Estudio  sobre  el  Itinerario  de  Antonino,17 
which  is  plausible  and  recognizes  the 
geography  of  the  peninsula.  Suffice  it  to 
note  here  that  he  identifies  Lacobriga 
with  Carrion  de  los  Condes,  and  Interam¬ 
nio  Flavio  with  Onamiol  (a  village  too 
small  to  figure  on  Stieler’s  map);  puts 
Roboretum  in  the  Sierra  de  Roboredo, 
and  sets  down  Brevis  for  Mellid.  The  one 
conviction  that  the  mere  student  formed 
over  the  dusty  book  is  not  altered  by  this 
article,  viz.,  a  certainty  that  the  Pilgrim 
road  in  Spain,  unlike  that  to  Canterbury, 
was  not  built  on  Roman  foundations,  except 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

89 

in  a  few  great  segments,  —  from  Sahagun 
past  Leon  to  Astorga,  for  sure,  and  through 
the  pass  of  Roncevaux  to  Pampeluna 
probably,  and  perhaps  a  bit  through  the 
mountains  of  Oca,  toward  Najera  and 
eastward. 

The  immense  work  of  Konrad  Miller, 
Itineraria  Romana,  which  represents  the 
labour  of  more  than  thirty  years,  and  met 
long  and  anxious  expectation  at  last  in 
1916,  is  not  so  satisfactory  to  consult  as 
the  cosmopolitan  spirit  could  wish.  Be¬ 
sides  the  crabbed  and  arid  style,  besides 
the  tiresome  affectations  of  German  pedan¬ 
try,  which  irritate  and  arrest  the  reader  at 
every  step,  the  plentiful  lack  of  punctua¬ 
tion,  the  abuse  of  abbreviations  and  super¬ 
abundance  of  conventional  symbols,  the 
contraction  into  unintelligibility  of  every 
word  likely  to  recur  often,  so  that  the  effect 
of  the  whole  is  as  illegible  and  unprofitable 
as  that  of  an  undergraduate’s  notes,  the 
author  has  had  the  happy  thought  of  put¬ 
ting  the  names  of  Spanish  towns,  and  indeed 
all  modem  place-names,  on  all  the  maps,  in 
a  German  form  and  in  German  script. 

A 

German’s 

vagaries 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

90 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Three 

Ways 

The  traveller  today  has  three  different 
lines  to  trace,  the  Roman  “street,”  the 
C amino  francos,  and  the  King’s  highway, 
the  modern  and  admirable  Camino  real. 
They  cross  and  part,  coincide  and  diverge, 
in  ways  impossible  to  predict  and  not 
always  explicable  on  the  map.  But  on 
the  spot  all  is  plain:  where  the  new  road 
was  built  longer  to  run  easier,  or  was  turned 
aside  to  a  new  town,  or  wanted  to  tap  the 
railway  line.  In  a  few  places  the  old  way 
is  quite  disused,  in  most  it  still  persists 
as  a  short  cut,  sometimes  foot-path,  usually 
possible  to  the  small-footed  silken-skinned 
mules.  At  times  it  is  a  mere  track  across 
somebody’s  meadow,  cut  off  by  gates  at 
either  end;  at  times  it  is  only  a  conjectural 
one  among  half  a  dozen  trails  that  cross 
a  moor.  Some  one,  however,  is  always 
travelling  on  it:  women  who  sit  sideways 
as  Queen  Elizabeth  rode,  men  who  trot 
hard  with  long  stirrup-leathers,  like  Don 
Quixote.  Some  one  is  always  to  be  met, 
to  give  a  direction  or  to  pass  a  question  on. 
The  ways  fill  up  with  tiny  moving  figures 
on  the  days  of  cattle  fair,  or  of  the  monthly 

'  I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRI MAG E 

9i 

feria  conceded  by  some  dead  king  seven 
centuries  or  more  ago.  You  have  but  to 
narrow  your  lids,  and  watch  the  pilgrims 
moving  easily,  not  too  slow,  as  they  have 
always  moved. 

The  pilgrims  set  out  from  home  at  night¬ 
fall,  “circa  noctis  crepuscula  .  .  .  pere- 
grinantium  more”:  that  made  the  first 
stage  an  easy  one,  and  besides  the  practical, 
there  may  have  been,  a  symbolic  reason. 
The  Grande  Chanson  says: 

Quand  nous  partimes 

Pour  aller  a  S.  Jacques, 

Pour  faire  penitence, 

Confesses  avons  nos  peches. 

Avant  que  de  partir  de  France, 

De  nos  cures,  primes  licence, 

Avant  de  sortir  du  lieu 

Nous  ont  donne  pour  penitence, 

Un  chape  let  pour  prier  Dieu. 

Prions  Jesus-Christ  par  sa  grace. 

Que  nous  puissions  voir  face  h  f  ace 

La  Vierge  et  Sainct- Jacques  le  Grand. 

Conformably,  in  earlier  centuries,  either 
before  they  set  out,  or  at  a  monastery  the 
first  night,  the  pilgrims  confessed,  made 

Twilight 

leave- 

taking 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

92 

WAY  OF  S .  JAMES 

Gifts  at 
parting 

their  wills,  deposited  their  valuables  and 
received,  apparently  as  a  gift  from  the 
monastery,  staff  and  scrip,  blessed  by  the 
abbot.  The  rich  abbey  of  La  Grande 
Sauve,  in  Gascony,  used  to  give  a  horse  or  a 
donkey.  They  had  also  to  carry  credentials 
of  some  sort  from  home:  in  1671  Louis  XIV 
required  that  the  bishop  should  recommend 
the  pilgrim  and  that  the  passport  should  be 
signed  and  countersigned  by  the  king  and 
a  secretary  of  State.  At  Santiago  the  pil¬ 
grims  confessed  again,  and  communicated, 
and  got  other  papers,  for  which  they  had 
to  pay.  For  the  return  journey  they  set 
out  in  the  morning,  and  some  went  then 
to  Oviedo,  some  to  the  great  Southern 
shrines,  some  to  Monserrat.  Many,  like 

the  young  Manier,  pushed  on  to  Rome, 
before  they  saw  home  again. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

93 

V 

ROMEROS  EN  ROMERIA 

Encore  le  voient  li  pelerin  assez 

Qui  a  S.  Jacque  ont  le  chemin  tourne. 

—  Guillaume  au  Court  Nez. 

In  a  decree  of  a  Spanish  council,  dated 
676,  cited  by  the  Abbe  Pardiac,  certain 
limits  are  defined  as  follows: — “one  bound¬ 
ary  runs  to  Futa  and  Alar z on,  by  the 
road  which  goes  to  S.  James.”  The  value 
of  this  reference  would  depend  partly  on 
the  authenticity  of  the  act,  partly  on  the 
question  what  church  of  S.  James  might  be 
intended.  It  seems  not  likely  to  have 
been  that  at  Iria.  Compostella  was  still 
in  its  original  estate  of  a  field  under  the 
stars — “qua  beati  Jacobi  corpus  tunc  tem- 
poris  latebat  incognitum.”  Granting  that 
the  pilgrimage  to  S.  James  commenced 
only  in  the  ninth  century,  yet  there  were 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

94 

WAY  OF  S .  JAMES 

Gandara, 
Cisne 
Occidental, 
II.  258 

pilgrims  a  plenty  in  Spain  by  the  seventh 
and  places  famed  for  their  resort.  The 
Deacon  Paul  of  Merida  refers  to  many  in 
the  sixth  century,  and  in  629,  S.  Fruetuo- 
sus  wrote,  when  founding  the  monastery 
of  S.  Martin  de  Sande:  “Vobis  fratribus 
nostris  .  .  .  concedimus  reditus  de  Lusisi- 
no,  in  elemosinas  et  sustentationem  hos- 
pitum  et  peregrinorum.”  The  habit  of 
pilgrimage  in  a  sense  is  innate;  in  another 
sense,  possibly  it  came  out  of  the  East, 
like  so  many  folk-tales,  to  the  troubled 
Europe  of  the  early  Middle  Age.  S.  John 
Chrysostom  says:  “Qualem  mercedem 
habet  qui  .propter  Deum  peregrinatur, 
talem  habet,  qui  suscepit  peregrinantem; 
et  hunt  ambo  equales.”  The  Council  of 
Rheims  in  625  decrees:  “quicumque  pere- 
grinari  volunt  illam  (Eucharistiam)  da 
viaticum  suseipiant.”  In  short,  pilgrimage 
was  common  to  all  Europe:  three  special 
pilgrimages  outgrew  the  others — that  of 
Jerusalem,  that  of  Rome,  and  that  of  Com- 
postella.  English  readers  will  recall  how 
similarly,  among  those  to  Walsingham, 1 
Glastonbury,  and  a  thousand  wells,  caves 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

95 

and  isles,  that  of  Canterbury  outstripped 
the  rest  by  far.  Chaucer,  who  sent  his 
Knight  on  the  Way  of  S.  James,  like  Raoul 
de  Cambrai  and  many  another,  put  his 
finger  on  the  motive  in  a  passage  so  fragrant 
of  the  mounting  sap,  so  musical  with  the 
returning  birds,  that  it  breathes  still  as 
fresh  as  April  airs: 

Then  longen  folk  to  gon  on  pilgrimages 

And  palmeres  for  to  seken  straunge 
strondes 

To  ferve  halwes  couthe  in  sondry  londes. 

The  precise  date  fixed  by  a  Pastoral  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Santiago,  in  1898,  for 
the  Invention  of  the  Relics,  is  813.  “Char¬ 
lemagne,”  says  the  Galiegan  version  of 
Turpin’s  Chronicle,2  “went  on  a  pil¬ 
grimage  to  the  Monument  of  S.  James,  and 
thence  to  Padron.  And  he  flung  his  lance 
into  the  sea  ”  at  Finisterre  —  Paul  the 
Deacon  has  the  same  story  of  a  Lom¬ 
bard  Duke  at  Reggio,3  “and  said  that 
thence  man  could  not  further  go.  And 
the  Gallegans,  that  were  all  turned  to 
belief  in  God  by  the  preaching  of  S.  James 

“Whanne 

that 

Aprile  ...” 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

96 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The 

plough¬ 
land  tax 

and  his  two  disciples,  and  that  had  turned 
afte.  wards  to  the  sect  of  the  Moors,  were 
baptized  by  the  hands  of  Archbishop  Tur¬ 
pin:  and  those  w'ho  would  not  be  baptized 
he  put  to  the  sword,  or  into  the  power  of 
the  christened.  And  this  time  the  king 
conquered  Spain  from  sea  to  sea,”  a 
profitable  pilgrimage,  not  to  be  matched 
in  times  less  fabulous. 

In  recognition  of  the  victory  of  Clavijo, 
Ramiro  gave,  in  872,  to  Compostella,  for 
every  measure  of  land  recovered  from  the 
Moors,  a  measure  of  wheat  and  a  measure 
of  wine.  In  1102,  every  yoke  of  oxen  from 
Rio  Pisuergo  to  the  sea,  paid  a  tax  to  S. 
James.  I  do  not  know  how  much  this 
tax  is  still  enforced.  It  was  abolished  in 
the  great  years  of  reform,  in  1812  and 
again  in  1835;  but  I  have  seen,  at  the 
feast  of  the  Apostle,  the  King  of  Spain  or 
his  representative,  offering  treasure  still 
before  the  altar,  in  a  church  thronged  with 
pilgrims,  among  whom  he  moved  as  one 
Spaniard  among  others. 

It  is  hard  to  know  precisely  when,  out  of 
all  the  tangled  pilgrimages,  that  to  S.  Mil- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

97 

lan  for  instance  and  that  to  the  San¬ 
tos  Domnos  at  Sahagun,  the  journey  to 
S.  James  attained  a  separate  and  higher 
importance.  The  early  donations  of  Rami¬ 
ros  and  Ordonos  to  S.  Facundo,  to  ensure 
the  care  of  pilgrims,  mean  probably  pilgrims 
that  did  not  pass  beyond.  But  Abbot 
Julian  of  Sahagun  established,  later,  a  hos¬ 
pice  in  his  monastery  purely  for  pilgrims  of 
Santiago.  Italians,  and  in  particular  Lom¬ 
bards,  were  protected  during  pilgrimages 
by  a  Capitulary  of  King  Pepin,  dated  782; 
“  De  advenis  et  peregrinis  qui  in  Dei  servitio 
Roma  vel  per  alia  sanctorum  festinant 
corpora,  ut  salvi  vadant  et  revertantur  sub 
nostra  defencione.”  This,  again,  is  general. 
Alfonso  III  gave  to  the  church  of  Orense,  in 
886,  a  donation  for  the  receipt  of  pilgrims. 

The  earliest  reference  unambiguous  and 
authentic,  that  I  know,  to  Santiago,  is  a 
casual  one  of  Dozy’s. 4  Abderraman  II 
sent  Al-Ghazal  on  an  embassy  to  the  King 
of  the  Normans  not  long  after  844  and  on 
his  way  home  the  Arab  poet  and  diplomat 
turned  aside  to  visit  S.  James,  in  company 
with  the  Norman  ambassador,  and  fur- 

Royal 

protection 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

98 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

Arab 

testimony 

nished  with  a  letter  from  the  king  to  the 
lord  of  the  land.  He  stayed  there  two 
months,  very  well  treated,  until  the 
pilgrim  season  was  over.  Dozy  has  not 
apparently  understood  this,  for  he  ren¬ 
ders  “jusqu’  a  la  fin  de  leur  pelerinage,” 
but  it  can  only  mean  the  other.  He  then 
went  back  into  Castile  with  returning  pil¬ 
grims,  thence  to  Toledo,  and  finally  reached 
home  after  an  absence  of  twenty  months. 

It  is  recorded  that  as  early  as  893  Pope 
Formosus  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Santiago 
and  also  visited  S.  Julian  of  Brioude.  By 
the  end  of  the  century  it  is  not  uncommon. 
Alfonso  III  the  Great  (866-910)  came 
with  all  his  family.  In  the  early  tenth 
century  S.  Genadius  came :  he  that  founded 
S.  Pedro  de  Montes,  and  was  plucked 
from  his  wilderness  to  administer  the  see 
of  Astorga,  and  when  he  had  done  his  day's 
work,  fled  back  to  the  mountain  again. 
Almaccari  says  that  in  the  tenth  century,  to 
Compostella  and  Iria,  came  in  pilgrimage 
Christians  from  Egypt  and  Nubia. 5  About 
that  time,  in  951,  Godescalcus,  Bishop  of 
Le  Puy,  left  his  diocese  to  go  and  implore 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

99 

afar  the  suffrage  of  S.  James,  and  stoppec 
going  and  coming  at  the  Monastery  o: 
Albelda,  where  he  had  copied  out  in  French 
S.  Isidore’s  treatise  on  the  Perfect  Virginity 
of  Mary.6  In  96i  Raymond  II,  Count  of 
Rouergue,  was  killed  on  the  road  to  Com- 
postella,  as  is  written  in  the  Book  of  the 
Miracles  of  S.  Faith.  S.  Abbon,  Abbot 
(988-1000)  of  Fleury,  S.  Benoit-sur-Loire, 
raised  an  altar  to  S.  James.  In  his  convent, 
immediately  after  his  death  (in  1005) 
was  written  the  Great  Legend  of  S.  James, 
possibly  by  the  monk  Aymoin,  his  friend 
and  pupil.  It  is  more  than  likely  that  he 
had  made  the  journey,  since  there  is  no 
record  of  relics  acquired  which  would 
explain  otherwise  the  especial  devotion  to 
that  Apostle.  The  cities  which  claimed  to 
possess  relics  are:  Toulouse,  Arras,  Liege, 
Venice,  Pistoja  and  Burgos. 

By  the  eleventh  century  a  great  move¬ 
ment  was  well  begun.  In  the  first  half  of 
it,  S.  William  of  Vercelli,  at  the  age  of 
fourteen,  walked  barefoot  in  his  shirt  to 
Santiago,  S.  Simeon  the  hermit,  also;  and 
S.  Theobald  quitted  his  home  and  with  a 

French 

devotion 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

IOO 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Road- 

menders 

single  fellow  made  the  pilgrimage  unshod. 
Under  Ferdinand  I  (1033-1065),  says 
Morales,7  the  pilgrimage  was  quite  estab¬ 
lished,  and  miracles  were  happening  all 
along  the  road.  Don  Sancho  el  Mayor, 
says  the  Silense,  built  roads  for  the  pil¬ 
grims  going  to  Santiago,  in  1032,  and  opened 
a  road  in  1035  from  the  top  of  the  Pyrenees 
to  Najera:8  and  Alfonso  VI,  says  Pelagio, 
in  the  Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  Leon,  “stud- 
uit  facere  omnes  pontes  qui  sunt  a  Lucronio 
usque  ad  Sanctum  Jacobum.”9 

Building  of  bridges  and  mending  of 
ways  were  good  enough  work,  in  the  Middle 
Age,  for  the  best  of  men.  More  than  one 
saint  broke  stone  on  the  roads.  To  this 
day  the  peones  camineros,  in  Spain,  are 
heritors  of  that  great  and  noble  labour; 
they  are  housed  like  soldiers;  they  wear  a 
uniform  and  carry  a  number,  like  police; 
they  work  well,  and  look  you  in  the  eye, 
and  will  do  you  a  kindness;  they  are  in 
Government  employment,  unabashed.  A 
Lombard  Capitulary  of  803  recalls  to  the 
clergy  their  duty  in  building  and  keeping 
up  bridges,  which  is  their  peculiar  work 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

IOI 

“per  justam  et  antiquam  consuetudinem.” 
Eudes  III,  Count  of  Touraine,  in  1030 
built  a  bridge  over  the  Loire  that  led  to 
the  Tomb  of  S.  Martin.  In  1164  S.  Benet 
the  Less,  S.  Benezet, 10  founded  the 
order  of  Hospitallers  Pontifes,  and  his  own 
little  cell  and  shrine  still  stands  on  the 
ruined  bridge  over  the  Rhone,  where  they 
no  longer  dance  “sur  le  pont  d’Avignon.” 
There  were  also  Hospitallers  dc  S .  Jacques 
du  Haut  Pas,  who  must  have  lent  their 
name  to  a  church  and  street  in  Paris  and 
who  received  a  legacy  in  1360, 1 1  and  others, 
Hospitaliers  of  Lucca,  in  Italy,  whose  busi¬ 
ness  was  with  bridges.  Peter  the  Pilgrim, 
on  the  fifth  of  October,  1126,  received  a 
privilege  from  Alfonso  VII  to  keep  him 
while  rebuilding  the  bridge  over  the  Mino 
with  the  help  of  God  and  good  souls. 1 2  We 
have  from  Aymery  the  list  of  those  who  at 
one  time  consecrated  themselves  to  work¬ 
ing  on  the  road  of  Santiago  between 
Rabanal  and  Puerto  Marin:  —  Andrew, 
Robert,  Alvito,  Fortis,  Amald,  Stephen, and 
Peter — the  last  is  Peter  called  the  Pilgrim. 1 3 
S.  Domingo  de  la  Calzada  got  his  name  from 

S..  Benet 
the  Less 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

102 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Order  of 

the  work  he  did,  and  after  his  death  S.  Juan 
de  Ortega  carried  it  on,  and  ended  in  a  chapel 
on  a  mountain  pass,  watching  the  ways. 

The  order  of  Santiago  was  founded  in 

Santiago 

1172  and  confirmed  by  a  Bull  of  Alexan- 

Rule  of 

S.  Loy 

der  III  in  1175,  but  it  grew  out  of  earlier 
use.  The  prior  and  canons  of  Loyo  had, 
near  Leon,  on  the  Camino  frames,  a  hos- 

who  shod 

pital  called  S.  Marcos  for  the  pilgrims  of 
S.  James.  Always  a  canon  of  Loyo  was  in 
residence,  to  administer  the  hospital  and 
give  alms  to  pilgrims  that  passed  by  there. 
In  time  the  institution  declined  and  on 
petition  was  reformed,  and  again  declined 

the  super- 

and  they  tried  a  prior  and  canons  from 

natural 

horse 

Uccles.  The  original  donation,  with  bridge 

and  a  good  endowment,  was  made  to 
the  Bishop  and  Chapter  of  Leon  by  Doha 
Cristina  Lainez  and  provided  for  a  hospice 
and  church  for  pilgrims.  The  convent  was 
further  enriched  by  the  body  of  the  founder 
and  the  first  master  of  the  order  of  Santiago, 
D.  Pedro  Fernandez,  in  1184.  The  epitaph 
reads : 

Mens  pia,  larga  manus,  os  prudens,  hace 
tria  clarum, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

103 

Fecerunt  Caelo,  et  mundo  te  Petre  Fer¬ 
nanda 

Militiae  Jacobi  stitor  Rectorque  fuisti. 
Sie  te  pro  meritis  ditavit  gratia 
Christi.14 

So  Militia 
Dei 

Like  the  other  Spanish  military  orders, 
this  one  fast  outgrew  its  original  intentions. 
Lastly,  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  took  to  him¬ 
self  the  Grand  Mastership  of  this  along 
with  the  other  orders,  and  today  it  serves 
merely  to  lengthen  the  list  of  honours  of 
rich  gentlemen  in  Madrid  and  to  dress  out 
plump  and  handsome  canons  of  Compos- 
tella  in  white,  red-crossed,  on  feast-days. 

Nearly  half  a  century  earlier,  Alfonso 
VI  (1073),  in  taking  possession  of  Leon  and 
Castile,  said  that,  in  order  to  do  a  good 
thing  for  his  subjects  and  for  other  people, 
not  only  of  Spain  but  of  Germany,  France 
and  Italy,  who  by  motive  of  religion  were 
journeying  to  Santiago,  he  would  suppress 
the  tolls  at  Valcarcel: 

A  King's 
benefac¬ 
tion 

In  the  port  of  Monte  Valcarcel 
there  was  a  castle  where  all  passers  by 
paid  toll,  called  S.  Maria  de  Auctares, 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

104 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  Gallegan 
bishop 

and  this  supplied  an  occasion  to  molest 
and  rob  travellers,  which  had  been  the 
custom  from  the  reign  of  his  predecfes- 
sors,  whence  resulted  grave  grievances 
for  all  who  passed  by  that  port,  such, 
[said  D.  Alonso]  that  they  cried  to 
heaven,  and  in  especial  the  pilgrims  who 
went  to  Santiago,  who  were  never  heard 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Leon  without  male¬ 
dictions  and  indignation  against  this  in¬ 
tolerable  custom.  He  abolished  the  toll 
forever, that  all, of  whatsoever  condition, 
could  pass  freely  and  without  annoyance 
or  inquietude,  in  such  wise  that  this  road 
to  Santiago  should  be  entirely  free  to 
pilgrims  and  even  to  those  who  carried 
merchandise,  or  went  on  any  other  busi¬ 
ness  whatsoever. 1 5 

He  makes  the  offering  by  the  hands  of 
D.  Pelayo,  Bishop  of  Leon,  to  the  honour  and 
glory  of  God  and  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the 
Apostle  S.  James,  “In  eujus  ditione  terra 
vel  regimen  consistit  totius  Hispaniae.”  Is 
it  worth  noticing  that  Bishop  Pelayo  was 
born  and  bred  in  Galicia?  There  were 
changes  with  changing  times,  belike,  and 
some  give  and  take,  for  in  1094  Bishop 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

105 

Pedro  leaves  to  Leon  money  for  altar  lights, 
and  four  pounds  of  incense  for  the  altar  of 
S.  John  Baptist,  charged  upon  the  revenues 
that  the  see  had  in  Aguilar,  in  the  bridge 
of  Ardon,  in  Villela  and  in  the  church  which 
was  on  the  Camino  frances. 1 6 

The  Council  of  Palencia,  in  1129,  pro¬ 
tected  by  identical  penalties  clerks,  monks, 
travellers,  merchants,  women,  and  pilgrims 
—  all  persons  going  peacefully  and  un¬ 
protected  about  their  business.  The  Fuero 
of  Daroca,  1142,  grants  a  year’s  delay  of 
any  partition  in  which  a  pilgrim  might  be 
involved:  — ■  “si  in  peregrinatione  fuerit  per 
annum  expectatur”;  and  another  law 
secures  their  goods:  —  “bona  peregrinorum 
non  poseunt  capi  pro  reprisaliis.”  The  old 
use  by  which  what  a  pilgrim  had  upon 
him  fell  to  the  town  he  might  die  in,  was 
altered  by  the  Siele  Partidas,  which  charged 
the  bishop  with  searching  out  his  heirs. 
The  Siete  Partidas  are  full  of  provisions  for 
pilgrims — against  money-changers  and  inn¬ 
keepers,  mayors  of  towns  and  lords  of 
lands,  robbers,  and  wars.  The  Church  at 
the  Council  of  Valladolid,  in  1322,  orders 

Fueros  and 

Siele 

Partidas 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

io6 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Canons 

and 

Constitu¬ 

tions 

rector  and  parish  priests  to  receive  chari¬ 
tably  the  poor  religious  and  the  pilgrims, 
and  where  there  are  special  houses  provided 
for  that  use,  to  make  sure  that  they  are 
prepared  conveniently  to  fulfill  the  hos¬ 
pitality  for  which  they  were  designed. 
One  other  enviable  privilege  should  not  be 
overlooked:  the  Constitutions  of  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Salamanca,  in  1422,  declare  that 
a  lawful  cause  for  which  a  professor  may 
be  excused  from  reading  (i.  e.  giving  his 
courses),  is  that  of  “ peregrinationis  ad 
limina  Sancti  Jacobi.” 

Ferdinand  I,  Alfonso  VI  and  the  Cid  all 
went  on  that  road.  Of  the  first,  the 
Chronicler  of  Silos  says,  “he  loved  the  poor 
pilgrims,  and  took  great  care  to  harbour 
them.”  An  old  painting  of  the  Cid  in 
Burgos  showed  him  with  the  cockle-shell 
at  his  girdle.  Murguia  affirms17  that  the 
Archives  of  Santiago  possess,  unpublished 
and  even  to  scholars  unknown,  a  circum¬ 
stantial  account  of  the  journey  made  by 
Pope  Calixtus  II  to  Spain  in  order  to 
visit  the  body  of  the  saint.  This  visit 
has  been  denied  by  scholars  hitherto. 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 


In  the  second  third  of  the  twelfth  century 
the  Maes/rescuela  of  Compostella,  Ramiro, 
writing  to  his  friend  S.  Aton,  Bishop  of 
Pistoja,  begs  him  to  reply  promptly,  send¬ 
ing  either  by  the  Easter  pilgrims,  or  else  by 
those  of  the  Ascension.  These  scraps  of 
old  letters  will  convey,  perhaps,  more  than 
any  studied  episode,  the  sense  of  the  magni¬ 
tude  of  the  pilgrimage.  The  Roman  priest 
who  was  a  Cardinal  of  Santiago,  Deusdedit, 
writes  the  same  recommendation  in  the 
matter  of  a  chasuble:  it  will  be  sent  best 
by  the  Easter  pilgrims. 

When  Ali-ben-Yussuf,  the  Almoravide, 
sent  an  embassy  to  Doha  Urraca  about 
1 12 1,  the  ambassadors  were  amazed  at  the 
throngs  of  pilgrims  who  choked  the  road. 
They  asked  the  subaltern  detailed  to  escort 
and  assist  them,  the  Centurion  Peter,  as 
the  Latin  Chronicle  calls  him:  “Who  is 
this  the  Christians  so  revered,  for  whom  so 
great  a  multitude  comes  and  goes,  from  this 
side  and  the  other  of  the  Pyrenees,  so  that 
the  road  is  scarcely  cleared  for  us?  ”  And 
Peter  answered  with  a  fine  gesture:  “He 
who  deserves  such  reverence  is  S.  James, 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


107 


Ramirothe 

Maestre- 

scuela 


Peter  the 
Centurion 


io8 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Quercy  to 
Braga 

whose  body  there  is  buried,  revered  as  pa¬ 
tron  and  protector  by  Gaul  and  England, 
the  Latin  and  the  German  land  and  all 
Christian  parts.” 

Toward  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century 
a  noble  of  Quercy,  who  was  a  Benedictine 
monk  in  the  abbey  of  Moissac,  was  fetched 
by  Archbishop  Bernard  to  Toledo,  made 
chantre  and  then  Archbishop  of  Braga, 
still,  at  that  date,  metropolitan  of  Santiago, 
finally  martyred  in  1109.  He  constitutes 
another  tie  between  Santiago  and  Langue¬ 
doc,  if  such  were  needed.  William  V  of 
Aquitaine  made  every  year  the  pilgrimage 
to  Rome  and  to  Compostella.  It  is  said 
in  the  Chronicle  of  Normandy  that  the 
horse  which  William  the  Bastard  rode  at 

The  Lion- 
hearted 

Hastings  had  been  brought  to  him  from 
Spain  by  a  knight,  a  pilgrim  of  Santiago. 

Matilda  the  Empress,  the  daughter  of 
Henry  I  of  England,  visited  the  shrine  in 
1125  and  took  back  to  England  with  her 
S.  James’s  hand.  Richard  I  the  Lion- 
hearted,  in  1178  pushed  an  expedition 1 8 
into  the  Port  of  Cize  to  punish  the  rustics 
who  violated  travellers  and  pilgrims.  The 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE 


PILGRIMAGE 


109 


city  of  La  Reole,  where  pilgrims  crossed 
the  Garonne,  was  an  especial  residence  of 
his:  it  had  an  hospital  and  a  street  of 
S.  James.  To  S.  James  was  dedicated  the 
principal  church  of  Bergerac.  Bordeaux 
has  a  me  S.  James,  existent  since  1152: 
it  is  the  sole  vestige  in  Bordeaux  of  English 
dominion  in  Aquitaine. 

The  father  of  Eleanore  of  Guienne,  Wil¬ 
liam  X  of  Aquitaine,  being  converted  by 
S.  Bernard  at  Parthenay  in  1133,  founded 
outside  Bordeaux,  in  the  Clos-Moron  (now 
rue  du  Mirail)  the  Hospital  of  S.  James  for 
pilgrims.  The  chapel  stands  yet.  He  went 
on  the  pilgrimage  in  Lent  of  1137,  expired 
while  the  Passion  was  sung,  and  was  buried 
before  the  altar.  According  to  other  ac¬ 
counts  this  funeral  was  a  pious  sham;  he 
went  to  Rome  and  Jerusalem  and  ended 
as  a  hermit  on  Mount  Lebanon  twenty 
years  after.  Murguia  publishes  a  rather 
lovely  Gallegan  romance,  taken  down  from 
the  lips  of  the  living,  which  seems  to  refer 
to  the  blessed  death  of  this  William  be¬ 
fore  the  altar.  The  old  man,  who  has  not 
strength  to  finish  the  journey,  whose  feet 


Rue 

S.  J&mes 


William  of 
Aquitaine 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


I  IO 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

Frisians 

are  bleeding,  whose  beard  is  so  long  and  so 
white,  whose  eyes  are  so  soft,  so  veiled, 
so  like  a  lion’s,  green  as  sea  water, — he 
meets  a  soldier  on  the  road.  The  soldier 
is  of  course  the  great  S.  James,  who  cheers 
him  and  assists  him,  and  brings  him  at 
last  where  he  would  be. 1 9  In  the  Cartulary 
of  S.  Pere  de  Chartres  is  recorded  a  gift  in 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  “dono 
patris  sui  qui  in  itinere  sancti  Jacobi  de- 
functus  extulit.”  Hugues  IV,  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  had  just  ended  the  pilgrimage 
when  he  died  in  1272.  In  1217  some 
Frisians,  a  people  always  very  devoted  to 
S.  James,  who  were  bound  on  the  Crusade 
in  three  hundred  ships,  touched  at  Lisbon 
and  on  the  petition  of  bishops,  Templars 
and  Knights  of  S.  John,  they  besieged  the 
citadel  of  Alkacer,  and  encountered  four 
Saracen  kings  and  a  hundred  thousand 
fighting-men.  By  adverse  winds  they  were 
forced  to  put  in  to  Corunna,  and  almost  all 
struck  out  for  Santiago  on  foot;  as  the  ships 
were  held  there  nine  days  before  the  wind 
changed,  they  had  time  enough  for  what  the 
Dutch  historian  calls  “their  superstition.” 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

hi 

Louis  IX  had  as  great  devotion — Join- 
ville,  I  think  it  is,  reports — to  Monseigneur 
S.  Jacques  as  to  Madame  S.  Genevieve, 
and  when  dying  said  over  his  prayer  Esto 
Domine:  “Keep,  Loid,  Thy  people,  and 
sanctify  them,  that  fortified  by  the  help  of 
Thy  Apostle  S.  James,  they  may  please 
Thee  in  their  works  and  serve  Thee  with  a 
quiet  heart.  Amen.”  Louis  VII  of  France, 
who  had  married  Constance,  the  daughter 
of  Alfonso  VIII,  had  made  the  pilgrimage 
in  1157,  after  he  had  been  on  a  crusade  and 
to  the  shrine  of  Notre  Dame  du  Puy.  Luke 
of  Tuy  makes  the  story  another  of  the 
Miracles  of  S.  James,  splendid  like  a  reli¬ 
quary  with  coloured  gems  and  bossy  with 
wrought  gold.  In  brief,  it  stands  thus: 

Louis,  King  of  France,  thinking  his 
wife  Elizabeth  [she  is  usually  called  Con¬ 
stance]  a  concubine’s  child,  and  her 
father  Alonso  [Alfonso  VII  the  Emperor] 
a  man  of  no  moment  in  any  but  his  own 
estimation,  denies  her  his  bed.  So  on 
pretext  of  a  pilgrimage  to  S.  James  he 
comes  to  Spain,  and  D.  Alonso  meets  him 
with  the  King  of  Navarre,  and  the  Count 

Collect  of 

S'.  James 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

1 12 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Vindica¬ 
tion  of  a 
French 
Queen 

of  Barcelona,  and  so  great  a  train  that 
King  Louis  and  his  Franks  marvelled, 
and  they  all  go  to  Santiago  and  thence 
through  Spanish  cities  to  Toledo.  There 
the  kings  of  the  Barbarians  and  princes 
of  the  Christians  kiss  his  hand,  till  Louis 
cries:  “By  God  I  swear  there  is  no 
glory  like  this  in  all  the  world”;  and  the 
tents  and  the  plays  were  past  numbering, 
and  they  all  offered  gifts,  gold,  silver, 
precious  stones,  silk,  vestments,  and 
horses,  to  King  Louis,  him  and  his,  so 
that  the  very  number  wore  them  out. 
Then  Alonso  says  that  Elizabeth  is  the 
daughter  of  his  empress  Berenguela,  the 
daughter  of  Raymond  of  Barcelona  there- 
present,  and  he  comes  up,  glorious  in 
apparel,  and  remarks  that  it  were  well  to 
honour  and  reverence  her,  for  otherwise 
the  Catalans  are  marching  on  Paris. 
Louis  thanks  God  and  is  content:  nor 
will  he  take  any  other  gift  but  a  great 
emerald — which  King  Zaf adola  had  given 
to  King  Alonso  —  and  so  he  went  home 
joyfully  and  gave  the  emerald  to  S. 
Denis,  and  loved  his  wife  Elizabeth  very 
tenderly  and  honoured  her  in  every 
possible  way.20 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

113 

Ferdinand  III,  Ferdinand  IV  and  John 
of  Brierme,  King  of  Jerusalem  and  later 
Emperor  of  Constantinople,  went  to  the 
shrine  of  S.  Martin  in  preparation  for  that 
of  S.  James:  at  the  same  time,  in  Tours 
were  the  Archbishop  of  Nineveh  and 
various  bishops  of  Little  Armenia  coming 
back  from  Compostella.  These  are  they 
who  brought  into  Europe  the  notion  of  the 
Wandering  Jew.21  The  Blessed  Raymond 
Lull  visited  Rocamadour  and  Compostella. 
S.  Francis  is  said  to  have  come  with  some 
companions,  including  Brother  Bernard,  in 
1214.  I  can  find  no  sound  evidence  that 
he,  or  S.  Dominic  either  • — •  though  the 
latter  was  a  Spaniard  —  ever  set  foot  in 
Santiago.  Guido  Cavalcanti  set  out,  but  on 
account  of  the  Lady  Mandetta  in  Toulouse 
he  never  finished  the  journey.  Sordello,  how¬ 
ever,  is  said  to  have  gone  thither,  and  the 
trobador  Romieu  de  Villeneuve,  that  Dante 
met  in  Paradise,  where  he  saw  the  lights 
shining  in  the  shining  pearl,  who  lived  at 
the  court  of  Count  Raymond  Berengar  of 
Toulouse  for  a  while  and  being  falsely  ac¬ 
cused,  wandered  away  again: 

The 

Wandering 

Jew 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

1 14 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Romieu  de 
Villeneuve 

There  came  to  his  [Raymond  Beren- 
gar’s]  court  a  certain  Romeo,  who  was 
returning  from  S.  James’s,  and  hearing 
the  goodness  of  Count  Raymond  abode 
in  his  court,  and  was  so  wise  and  valor¬ 
ous,  and  came  so  much  into  favour  with 
the  Count,  that  he  made  him  master  and 
steward  of  all  that  he  had.  .  .  .  Four 
daughters  had  the  Count  and  no  male 
child.  By  prudence  and  care  the  good 
Romeo  first  married  the  eldest  for  him 
to  the  good  King  Louis  of  France  by 
giving  money  with  her,  saying  to  the 
Count,  ‘Leave  it  to  me,  and  do  not 
grudge  the  cost,  for  if  thou  marriest  the 
first  well  thou  wilt  marry  all  the  others 
the  better  for  the  sake  of  her  kinship 
and  at  less  cost.’  And  so  it  came  to  pass; 
for  straightway  the  King  of  England, 
to  be  of  kin  to  the  King  of  France,  took 
the  second  with  little  money;  afterwards 
his  carnal  brother,  being  the  king  elect 
of  the  Romans,  after  the  same  manner 
took  the  third;  the  fourth  being  still  to 
marry  the  good  Romeo  said:  ‘For  this 
one  I  desire  that  thou  shouldst  have  a 
brave  man  for  thy  son,  who  may  be 
thine  heir,’  —  and  so  he  did.  Finding 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE  n 


I  Charles,  Count  of  Anjou,  brother  of 
j  King  Louis  of  France,  he  said,  ‘Give  her 

to  him  for  he  is  like  to  be  the  best  man  ] falsely 
in  the  world,’  prophesying ' of  him:  and  accused 
this  was  done.  ‘And  it  came  to  pass 
afterwards  through  envy,  which  destroys 
all  good,  that  the  barons  of  Provence] 
accused  the  good  Romeo  that  he  had 
managed  the  Count’s  treasure  ill,  and 
they  called  upon  him  to  give  an  account. 

The  worthy  Romeo  said,  ‘  Count,  I  have 
served  thee  long  while,  and  raised  thy 
estate  from  small  to  great,  and  for  this, 
through  the  false  counsel  of  thy  people, 
thou  art  little  grateful:  I  came  to  thy 
court  a  poor  pilgrim,  and  I  have  lived 
virtuously  here;  give  me  back  my  mule, 
my  staff,  and  my  scrip,  as  I  came  here, 
and  I  renounce  thy  service.’  The 
Count  would  not  that  he  should  depart  ; 
but,  for  nought  that  he  could  do  would 
he  remain;  and,  as  he  came  so  he  de¬ 
parted,  and.  no  one  knew  whence  he 
came  or  whither  he  went.  But  many 
held  that  he  was  a  sainted  soul.22 

In  1253  the  Friar  Minor  William  Rubro- 
ques  met  in  the  depths  of  Tartary  a  Nes- 

_ 

AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


ii6 


The  Greek 
Bishop 


The  cost 
of  war 


WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 


torian  Monk  who  spoke  of  setting  out  for 
S.  James  of  Galicia.  Under  Ferdinand  the 
Great  a  Greek  Bishop  named  Stephen  was 
so  happy  when  he  came  at  last  to  the 
Apostle’s  shrine,  that  he  gave  up  home  and 
see  and  stayed  there  till  he  died.  The 
ends  of  Europe  were  diawn  together. 
There  in  1254  was  the  wronged  Christina 
of  Norway,  the  daughter  of  Haakon  IV, 
who  though  she  married  the  pi  ince  D.  Philip, 
yet  breathed  away  like  a  snow  wreath 
and  died  untimely.  Thither  also  went  S. 
Bridget  of  Sweden,  S.  Elizabeth  of  Portugal, 
Raymond  VII  of  Toulouse  in  1246,  and 
Henry  II  of  Trastamara,  the  bastard  who 
killed  his  brother. 

Studying  the  influx  from  abroad,  Sr. 
Villa-amil  unearthed  a  curious  item  bear¬ 
ing  on  the  cost  of  war  and  who  pays  it.  In 
an  agreement  drawn  up  in  1345  between 
the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Lugo,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  a  canon  called  Juan  Dfaz  on 
the  other,  about  the  rent  of  an  altar  in  the 
cathedral  church,  for  the  sum  of  700 
maravedis,  payable  at  Lady-Day,  it  is 
expressly  stipulated  that  if  the  King  of 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  PILGRIMAGE 

11 7 

France  and  the  King  of  England  go  to 

war  this  year  between  Candlemas  and 

May  Day,  there  shall  be  deducted  from 

the  rent  an  hundred  maravedis. 

Many  churches  are  dedicated  to  the 

saint  of  wayfarers  in  Flanders  and  Picardy, 

especially  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Havre, 

Traveller’s 

Dieppe  and  Compiegne.  By  a  curious 

towns 

coincidence,  while  the  two  former  towns 

are  sea-faring  places,  the  last  grew  into  a 

great  nucleus  of  railways.  Frisia  dedi- 

cated  the  gates  of  cities. 

Slavonians  had  a  special  devotion  to 

the  pilgrimage:  after  three  trips,  a  man 

might  live  exempt  from  taxation.  They  gave 

their  name,  in  Spanish  and  English  alike, 

to  the  long,  waterproof  pilgrim’s  coat,  the 

slaveyn.  Ojea  recorded,  in  1600,  that  they 

came  the  end  of  April,  so  as  to  be  at  the 

sanctuary  on  May  Day,  and  immediately 

reported  to  the  superior  clergy  and  ob- 

tained  certificates  from  them.  The  third 

.  .  .  Their 

year  they  put  garlands  on  their  heads 

hats  were 

and  went  in  solemn  procession  that 

of  the 
brake  .  .  . 

day,  in  sign  that  they  had  fulfilled 

their  devotion  and  the  requirements  of 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

1 1 8 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Sir  Walter 

Manny’s 

end 

the  law,  in  order  to  enjoy  its  exemptions 
thereafter. 23 

In  the  fourteenth  century  the  practice 
was  at  its  height.  Froissart  tells  how  Sir 
Walter  Manny  was  evilly  killed  as  he  came 
home  from  S.  James.24  It  is  known  that 
in  1361  Messire  Jehan  de  Chartres  and 
Pierre  de  Montferrand,  going  on  the  pil¬ 
grimage,  took  three  jongleurs  with  them: 
and  an  English  minstrel  named  Walter  was 
in  Compostella  about  this  time. 25  It  had 
become  an  element  in  politics.  For  instance, 
on  the  fourth  of  September,  13x6,  a  contract 
between  Robert  and  the  cities  of  Flanders, 
and  Philip,  Regent  of  France,  stipulated 
that  “If  Count  Robert  can  he  shall  go  over 
sea  with  him  who  shall  be  King  of  France, 
when  he  shall  go.  He  will  go,  and  his 
sons,  in  one  year  or  two  (unless  his  father 
or  he  be  ill),  once  or  more  to  S.  James  in 
Galicia,  to  Noire  Dame  de  Roche-Mador, 
to  Notre  Dame  de  Vauvert,  to  S.  Gilles  in 
Provence,  to  Notre  Dame  du  Puy.”  A 
treaty  signed  on  Christmas  Eve  at  Arcques 
(near  S.  Omer)  1326,  between  the  King  of 
France,  Count  Louis  of  Flanders,  and  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

119 

Flemish  cities,  stipulates  that  three  hun¬ 
dred  persons  of  Bruges  and  Cambrai  must 
go  on  pilgrimage,  one  hundred  to  S.  James, 
one  hundred  to  S.  Giles,  and  one  hundred 
to  Rocamadour.  Before  this,  in  1284,  the 
two  sons  of  Herbert  called  the  Scrivener, 
for  having  ill-used  Girart  the  Butcher,  of 
Compiegne,  were  condemned  to  make  the 
pilgrimage  to  Compostella.  They  were  the 
first  of  their  townsmen  to  go. 

A  decree  of  the  Parliament  of  Champagne 
dated  January  9,  1367,  and  preserved  at 
Rheims,  supplies  another  instance.  Mar¬ 
garet,  wife  of  the  Viscount  Ponsard  Larra- 
bis,  petitions  that  a  certain  Stephen  who 
had  called  her  names  and  beaten  her 
( ratione  injuriarum  et  verier ationum)  shall 
be  condemned  to  make  public  satisfaction 
and  to  go  in  pilgrimage  first  to  S.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury  and  after  to  S.  James  of 
Galicia,  living  in  each  place  a  year  at  his 
own  expense,  and  bringing  back  letters 
which  show'that  he  has  done  it. 

As  early  as  1115  the  Council  of  Oviedo 
had  prescribed  for  certain  offences  against 
the  Church  that  the  criminal  should  become 

Penitential 

pilgrim¬ 

ages 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

120 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Creating 
the  tramp 

either  a  Benedictine  monk,  or  an  anchorite, 
or  a  church  serf,  or  a  perpetual  pilgrim  — 
for  all  the  days  of  his  life.  The  penitentials 
of  Bede  and  of  Theodore  both  contemplate 
this  penalty,  of  temporary  or  perpetual 
pilgrimage,  according  to  the  offence,  and 
Rabanus  Maurus  disallows  it.  In  the 
Capitularies  of  Charlemagne  likewise  it  is 
forbidden,  because  it  ruins  the  man:  it 
creates  the  tramp.  The  Inquisitors  of  the 
South  of  France  often  imposed  annual  pil¬ 
grimages  at  fixed  dates,  called  Visitations, 
which  worked  like  reporting  periodically 
to  a  Probation  Officer.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  the  twelfth  century  the  Arch¬ 
bishop  Hildebert  wrote  to  Foulques,  Count 
of  Anjou  and  Maine,  who  wished  to  set 
out  on  the  pilgrimage: 

Among  the  talents  that  the  master 
of  the  house  divides  among  his  servants, 
no  doctor  has  ever  counted  that  of  gad¬ 
ding  abroad;  and  S.  Hilarion,  being  near 
to  Jerusalem,  went  thither  one  time  lest 
he  should  seem  to  despise  the  holy  places, 
but  only  once.  .  .  .  You  will  say  to  me 
perhaps,  I  have  made  a  vow,  and  not  to 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

121 

keep  it  were  a  sin.  But  consider  that 
you  yourself  bound  yourself  by  this  vow, 
but  God  laid  on  you  the  charge  of  gov¬ 
erning  your  peoples :  see  if  the  good  fruits 
this  journey  will  yield,  can  make  up  for 
the  loss  of  duties  left  undone.  If  the 
latter  good  is  beyond  comparison  the 
greater,  as  cannot  be  denied,  then  stay 
in  your  palace,  live  for  your  state,  do  jus¬ 
tice,  protect  the  poor  and  churches.26 

In  England,  a  pilgrimage  to  S.  James 
was  not  infrequently  a  necessary  condition 
to  the  inheritance  of  property.  The 
poem,  however,  that  the  Early  English 
Text  Society  reprints,  has  little  to  do  with 
S.  James  beyond  the  first  couplet.  The 
rest  is  devoted  to  sea-sickness  and  the  dis¬ 
comforts  of  ocean  travel. 2  7  But  the  English 
came,  notwithstanding.  Out  of  ten  se¬ 
lected  years,  running  from  1397  to  1456,  D. 
Jose  Corinde  makes  up  a  total  of  130 
ships,  and  7907  pilgrims  arriving  in  Galicia. 
The  inspiration  of  this  great  volume  of  travel 
was  in  part,  at  least,  commercial,  just  as 
economic  reasons  underlay  the  change  when 
in  the  following  century  we  read,  instead, 

Condition 
to  inherit¬ 
ance 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

I  22 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Roll-call 

of  Drake’s  raid  on  Corunna,  or  “The  True 
Relation  of  a  Brave  English  Stratagem  prac¬ 
ticed  lately  upon  a  sea  town  in  Galicia, 
one  of  the  Kingdoms  of  Spain;  and  most 
valiantly  and  successfully  performed  by  one 
English  ship  alone  of  thirty  tons,  with  no 
more  than  thirty-five  men  in  her.”28 

The  Licenciate  Luis  de  Molina,  in  his 
Description  of  the  Kingdom  of  Galicia, 
which  he  printed  in  Mondonedo  in  1550, 
relishes  highly  the  long  roll  of  countries 
represented,  reciting  them  with  a  reminis¬ 
cence  of  the  Pentecostal  miracle: 

Visitale  Albania,  Normandos,  Gascones, 
Mallorca,  Menorca,  Cerdena,  y  Cecilia, 
Efesios,  Corintios,  Dalmacia,  y  Panfilia, 
Vascos,  Chiprianos,  tambien  Esclauones, 
De  Ponto,  y  Tesalia,  y  aca  los  Saxones, 
Polonia,  Noruega,  Yrlanda,  y  Escocia, 
De  Egypto,  de  Siria,  tambien  Capadocia, 
De  Jerusalen,  con  otras  naciones. 

Visitale  Francia,  Ytalia,  Alemania, 
Ungria,  Boemia,  gran  parte  de  Grecia, 
Los  Negros  Etiopes,  Ybernia,  Suecia, 
Caldea,  Fenecia,  ni  Arabia  se  extrana, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

123 

Y  mas  Ynglaterra,  con  Flandes,  Bretana, 
Del  gran  Preste  Juan,  de  Armenia,  y  de 
Frisia 

Teniendo  tal  cuenta  con  esta  Galicia 

Los  quales  afrentan  a  nos  los  de  Espana. 

The  pilgrimage  could  be  made  by  proxy, 
or  by  delegates.  Barcelona,  in  146  s,  when 

jproxy 

the  plague  was  there,  sent  Fray  Miguel 
Capeller  and  Fray  Leonardo  de  Gratia: 
in  1475  from  Palma  de  Mallorca  came  two 
chaplains  of  the  church  of  S.  Maria  del 
Mar.  Kings  sent  ambassadors.  The  Eng¬ 
lish  King,  Henry  II,  asks  once  rather  im¬ 
patiently  for  a  safe  conduct  for  the  journey, 
or  if  he  cannot  have  that  for  his  proper 
person,  then  one  for  ambassadors  of  his. 
After  the  death  of  Louis  XI,  Martillon 
came  to  Santiago  to  make  the  offerings 
provided  by  the  King’s  will,  and  brought 
with  him  founders  to  make  goodly  bells. 
As  representative,  later,  of  Philip  IV  of 
Spain  and  Margaret  his  Queen,  came 
Bishop  Diego  de  Guzman,  who  was  to  be 
Archbishop  of  Seville.  His  offerings  were 
chiefly  in  kind,  Florentine  textiles  of  un- 
paralleledmagnificence,and  wrought  silver. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

124 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

The  Soul 
as  Pilgrim 

It  was  possible,  also,  to  go  for  the  dead. 
In  the  year  1403,  Juan  Fernandez  de 
Guermeces  signed  a  very  devout  will  in 
which,  after  ordering  a  certain  number  of 
masses  to  be  said,  and  leaving  divers  alms 
to  the  convents,  hospitals  and  asylums 
situate  in  various  streets  and  houses  of 
Burgos,  he  directed  that  two  men  should 
go  on  pilgrimages  on  his  account,  one  to 
the  Sepulchre  of  S.  James  and  the  other 
to  the  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Guadelupe. 
It  is  not  far  from  this  possibility  of  a  jour¬ 
ney  for  the  dead,  to  the  belief  that  the 
dead  themselves  may  go.  In  the  Asturian 
Romance  of  El  Alma  cn  Pena,  among  those 
collected  by  D.  J ose  Menendez  Pidal,  the 
poor  soul  itself  fulfills  the  pilgrimage. 

On  the  way  of  Santiago  went  a  pilgrim 
soul:  the  night  was  starless,  the  earth  was 
shaken.  A  caballcro  comes  to  the  win¬ 
dow: —  “If  thou  be  of  evil,  I  conjure  thee 
to  depart,  if  thou  be  of  this  world,  tell  me 
what  is  wanted.”  The  sinful  soul  has 
come  to  running  water,  and  cannot  cross,  — 
“Trust  to  the  rosaries  said  in  life.” — “Alas, 
I  said  none.”  —  “Trust  to  the  fasts.”  — 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

The  Soul  as  Pilgrim 

( From  a  Miniature  of  the  Fifteenth  Century) 


THE  PILGRIMAGE 


127 


“I  never  fasted.” — “To  the  alms.” — “I 
gave  none.”  Then  the  caballero  lights 
consecrated  tapers  at  the  window  and  on 
the  ray  of  light  they  cast,  the  soul  crossed 
the  running  water  and  went  on:  and  re¬ 
turned  the  same  night  singing:  “Blessed 
the  caballero,  who  has  saved  his  soul  and 
mine.”29  As  this  condensed  version  gives 
no  notion  of  the  touching  loveliness  of  the 
poem,  I  have  reprinted  it  in  the  A  ppendix 
along  with  an  English  ballad  that  showssome 
curious  divergence  in  the  midst  of  likeness. 

In  another  of  Sr.  Menendez  Pidal’s 
Romances,  the  pilgrim  who  passes  on  her 
way  taller  than  a  pine-tree,  so  charms  the 
eye  and  draws  the  desire  of  the  King  that 
he  lays  out  the  finest  bread  and  wine,  the 
richest  clothing,  the  warmest  cloak,  and 
sends  a  page  to  fetch  her;  she  is  under 
an  olive  tree,  combing  out  her  blond  hair 
silken-fine:  she  will  not  be  bribed  by  his 
offers,  for  she  is  queen  in  heaven,  she  is 
the  blessed  Magdalen.30  In  yet  another, 
she  is  Mary  Queen.  Very  little  abashed, 
he  renounces  seduction  and  betakes  him  to 
supplication:  she  hears  him  graciously. 


Running 

Water 


XI 

X 


HISPANIC  NOTES  I 


128 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Messen¬ 
gers  in 
slaveyn 

The  pilgrim  who  is  not  a  pilgrim  but 
some  one  else  in  disguise,  is  a  common¬ 
place  of  the  Chansons  de  Gcsles.  In  Guy 
de  Bourgoyne  the  venerable  Charlemagne 
thus  disguises  himself:  in  Anseis  of  Car¬ 
thage,  by  this  device  the  King’s  messengers 
get  through  to  France,  just  as  this  is 
the  array  in  which  those  of  Gelmirez 
try  to  reach  the  Pope,  in  the  Hisloria 
Compostellana,  which  is  truth  written  by 
eye-witnesses.  In  the  Cantar  de  Garci  Fer¬ 
nandez,  the  Countess  Argentina  was  first 
carried  off,  like  Bernardo  del  Carpio’s 
mother,  while  cn  romeria  a  Santiago,  and 
afterwards  she  was  greatly  taken  with  a 
count  of  her  own  land  who  yva  en  romeria 
in  his  turn :  and  the  end  of  all  these  persons 
is  in  the  tragedy  of  blood.  In  the  Poem 
of  Fenian  Gonzalez  it  is  a  knight  bowne 
to  S.  James  from  somewhere  in  Lombardy 
who  brings  word  to  the  Kihg’s  daughter 
that  the  good  knight  lies  in  prison,  and 
again  it  is  she,  disguised  as  a  romcra,  who 
contrives  his  escape,  in  a  famous  romance 
that  Lockhart  has  translated.  The  latest 
editor  of  Flores  y  Blancaflor , 3 1  the  fifteenth- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

 . . . .  ~  “ 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 


century  Spanish  novel,  wants  to  have 
the  whole  exquisite  romance,  with  all  its 
French  and  Italian  forms  as  well,  fall  into 
line  simply  as  another  of  the  Miracles 
of  S.  James.  His  argument  is  not  quite 
weighty  enough,  but  the  setting,  at  least, 
of  the  orient  gem  he  shows  to  be  the  cult  of 
the  Apostle:  with  the  pilgrimage  to  Santiago 
the  action  begins,  by  an  unaccountable  mira¬ 
cle  the  denouement  is  contrived,  and  with 
another  pilgrimage  to  Rome  the  whole  ends. 

The  incident  lay  always  ready  at  hand, 
plausible,  symbolic,  romantic,  for  history, 
epic,  or  allegory.  The  miracles  that  hap¬ 
pened  along  the  road  are  of  all  sorts, 
but  mostly  quite  practical,  and  they  seem 
to  have  happened  over  and  over  again. 
From  Ozanam’s  Pelerinage  au  Pays  du 
Cid  I  have  gathered  one,  fragrant  as  the 
rosemary  of  the  Pyrenees,  that  perfumes 
all  the  day. 32 

It  is  told  of  S.  Bona  of  Pisa,  who  with  a 
company  of  pilgrims  came  to  a  torrent 
where  the  bridge  was  ruinous.  As  the 
party  stood  about  -wondering  what  to  do, 
Christ  appeared  to  her  and  said:  “Raise 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


129 


Flores  y 
Blanca fior 


.  .  .  Far 

out  at  sea, 

says 

Howell 


S.  Bona  of 
Pisa 


I 


130 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Que  cant 6 
la  gallina 
asada 

your  arms,  and  pass.”  The  company 
cried  out  as  she  started,  but  a  multitude 
of  saints  came  down  from  heaven,  popes 
and  bishops  in  cope  and  mitre,  and  stood 
in  the  stream  on  both  sides  of  the  bridge. 
She  passed  in  safety.  Then  Christ  said: 
“Call  your  companions;  not  one  of  them 
shall  perish  if  you  keep  your  hands  raised 
all  the  time  they  are  crossing,”  and  at 
last  she  coaxed  them  all  across.  One  man 
saw  the  popes  and  bishops  as  he  passed. 

Usually,  however,  S.  James  took  care  of 
the  miracles.  There  is  the  story  of  the 
stolen  cup  and  the  pious  German  pilgrim, 
falsely  accused  by  a  maid-servant  he  had 
rebuffed:-53  he  was  hanged,  and  his  parents 
went  on,  but  when  they  came  back  he 
was  yet  alive,  for  S.  James  had  held  him 
up  so  that  the  rope  did  not  strangle.  This 
is  told  of  Toulouse. 

At  S.  Domingo  de  la  Calzada  they  still 
keep,  caged,  above  the  transept  arch,  a 
pair  of  white  chickens  of  the  breed  that 
got  up,  under  the  carving  knife,  and  crew, 
to  confute  a  judge  who  in  a  like  case  had 
pronounced  sentence  and  seen  it  executed. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

131 

Navagero  saw  them,  and  I.  You  remember 

the  story :  have  seen  it  painted  on  a  chapel 

wall  at  Forli:  the  parents  shaken  by  the 

by  the 

conflict  of  long  grief  and  new-born  hope, 

Adriatic 

the  judge  who  says,  “That  man  was  dead 

as  these  roast  chickens,  ”  and  the  cock  who 

claps  his  wings  and  stretches  his  throat  to 

testify  that  the  saint  can  protect  his  own. 

Another  story  is  not  without  edification, 

that  of  a  pilgrim  from  Barcelona  who 

prayed  never  to  be  a  captive.  He  was 

taken  by  the  Saracens  and  sold  thirteen 

times,  but  the  chain  always  broke  on  his 

limbs.  In  the  end,  however,  the  apostle 

suggested  to  him  that  the  chains  of  sin 

were  worse  and  his  prayer  would  have  been 

better  directed  upon  the  spiritual  side. 

There  is  a  touching  history  of  a  boy,  a 

good  lad  of  Lorraine,  who  when  one  of  the 

party  fell  ill  by  the  way  in  Gascony  stayed 

.  .  .  le  bon 

with  him  while  the  rest  went  on,  nursed, 

Lorrain 

and  at  last  buried  him.  This  was  in  the 

year  1080.  Then  he  resumed  the  wallet 

and  staff  to  go  on  alone,  but  a  rider  over- 

took  and  picked  him  up  on  a  great  white 

horse  that  devoured  the  miles,  that  gal- 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

132 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

On  the 

white 

horse 

loped  up  mountains  and  down  them  again, 
splashed  streams  an  instant  and  was  far 
on  in  the  dust,  till  the  trees  whizzed  by 
and  the  sun  was  left  behind.  At  nightfall 
the  boy  found  himself  set  down  on  the 
Mount  of  Joy,  in  view  of  the  cathedral 
towers,  just  a  pace  ahead  of  all  his  friends 
with  whom  he  had  set  out  from  home. 

The  Venerable  Guibert  de  S.  Marie  of 
Nogent-sous-Coucy,  in  the  diocese  of 
Laon,  tells  of  a  young  man  who  made  the 
journey  girt  with  the  girdle  of  his  mistress. 
The  devil,  seeing  him  so  far  on  the  road  to 
salvation,  made  a  furious  assault,  flung 
him  into  despair,  and  persuaded  him  to 
suicide,  which  meant,  of  course,  damnation. 
S.  James  interceded  for  him  in  heaven, 
restored  his  soul  to  earth  long  enough  for 
penitence  and  absolution,  and  took  it 
back  with  him  into  Paradise. 

Need  was  there,  after  all,  on  the  long 
road,  of  miracles,  for  it  was  a  hard  road, 
and  of  great  saints  to  take  care  of  little 
souls,  for  not  all  who  went  came  home 
again.  I  have  the  story,  in  a  private 
letter,  of  a  French  gentlemen,  my  cor- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  PILGRIMAGE 

133 

respondent’s  ancestor,  who  setting  out  on 
the  pilgrimage  in  the  fifteenth  centuiy, 

arranged  his  affairs  and  provided  that  if 
he  should  die  on  the  way,  his  bones  might 
be  brought  back  to  rest  in  France;  or  if 
the  money  upon  him  should  not  suffice, 
then,  at  least,  be  brought  so  far  as  possible. 
There  you  feel,  for  an  instant,  the  home¬ 
sick,  the  exile,  as  in  the  words  which  Dante 
uttered  prophesying,  for  he  knew  not  yet 

what  way  he  should  die: — “These  pilgrims 

Dante  in 

seem  to  me  to  be  from  a  far  country  and  I 

the  Vila 

believe  that  they  have  not  even  heard 
speak  of  my  lady  and  know  naught  of  her; 
rather  their  thoughts  are  of  other  things 
than  of  these  here;  for  perchance  they  are 
thinking  of  their  distant  friends  whom  we 
know  not  .  .  .  The  wide  sense,  in  so  far 
as  whoever  is  outside  his  fatherland  is  a 
pilgrim:  in  the  narrow  sense,  none  is  called 
a  pilgrim  save  him  who  is  journeying 
towards  the  sanctuary  of  S.  James,  or  is 
returning.  They  are  called  palmers,  in 
so  far  as  they  journey  over  the  sea,  theie, 
whence  many  times  they  bring  back  palm 
branches;  they  are  called  pilgrims  in  so 

Nuova 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

134 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Graves  by 
the  way 

far  as  they  journey  to  the  sanctuary  of 
Galicia,  because  the  tomb  of  S.  James  was 
farther  from  his  own  country  than  that  of 
any  other  apostle.”34 

Very  many  who  set  forth,  came  not  home 
at  the  long  last:  by  the  side  of  the  road 
are  their  graves,  in  parish  churches,  in  for¬ 
gotten  sanctuaries.  The  bishop  who  had 
been  all  the  way  to  Jerusalem  and  had  got 
him  a  precious  relic  of  S.  Andrew  to  bring 
home,  lies  yet  in  Estella.  The  Knights 
who  were  surprised  as  they  slept  by  Cea 
bank,  yet  sleep  there  still.  Every  hospice 
or  its  site,  along  the  way,  has  more  graves 
than  names  of  pilgrims  to  tell  over.  Urged 
by  more -than  mortal  desire,  through  the 
centuries,  they  pressed  on,  “for  they  seek 
a  better  country,  that  is,  an  heavenly.” 

Vous  qui  allez  a  Sainct  Iacques, 

Je  vous  prie  humblement 

Que  n’ayez  point  de  haste: 

Allez  tout  bellement. 

Las!  que  les  pauvres  malades 

Sont  en  grand  desconfort! 

Car  maints  hommes  et  femmes 

Par  les  chemins  sont  morts. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

BOOK  TWO 

135 

BOOK  TWO 

THE  WAY 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

136 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A-t-il ceint  ses reins  pour  le  voyage 
de  Composlelle  ou  pour  celui  de  la 
Mecque?  S’est-il  embarque  dans  un 
pieux  p'elerinage  archeologique?  A  -t- 
il  pris  le  hesace  el  le  bdlon  du  Juif 
errant?  A-t-il  ete  de  monument  en 
monument,  de  relique  en  relique,  de 
porte  en  porte,  se  recommandant  a 
tons  les  saints  ou  d  tons  les  prophetes 
du  Paradis,  mendier  fiitrement  sur  les 
grands  chemins,  d  la  sueur  de  son 
front,  le  pain  de  la  verite. 

— Courajod. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

137 

I 

SETTING  OUT 

“Nous  etions  bien  bonne 
compagnie  de  gens  sludieux 
amateurs  de  peregrinite.” 

The  cypress,  it  seems,  grows  in  Langue¬ 
doc  along  with  the  poplar,  the  poplar  of 
northern  France  with  the  Italian  cypress, 
side  by  side.  The  country  was  gilded  with 
ripening  wheat,  and  the  sun  was  in  the 
sign  of  the  Lion.  From  thick  green  banks 
blew  into  the  train  the  scent  of  elder;  there 
bloomed  eglantine  and  the  pink  wild  rose 
together.  When  Jehane  came  back  after 
coffee  at  a  station,  she  found  the  carriage 
pleasantly  populous  with  irresponsibles,  — 
old  women,  babies,  and  a  priest:  two  sickly 
children  with  their  sickly  mother  in  cheap 
ready-made  clothes,  two  handsome,  whole¬ 
some  grandmothers  en  bonnet,  and  the 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

138 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Sun 
in  Leo 

priest’s  the  most  beautiful  woman’s  face 
of  all.  Jehane  is  long  and  brown  and 
deceptively  gentle,  children  gravitate  to 
her  very  luggage;  with  difficulty  we  kept 
our  seats  at  the  window  and  our  attention 
on  the  thick  slow  waters  and  strong  vegeta¬ 
tion  without.  We  had  met,  by  appoint¬ 
ment,  in  Toulouse  on  Midsummer  Day, 
Jehane  coming  from  Italy  and  the  other 
from  farther,  following  the  starry  track, 
both  firmly  purposing  to  go  into  Spain  by 
the  mountain  road.  Where  the  railway 
ended  we  should  take  a  diligence,  or,  if 
there  were  none,  a  carriage;  where  wheels 
did  not  go  we  should  take  mules;  where 
rocks  were  too  steep,  we  should  essay  them 
on  foot.  We  had  corded  up  our  boxes 
and  left  them  with  the  landlord;  we  had 
strapped  up  our  bags  and  put  them  in  the 
carriage;  and  had  taken  our  tickets  for 
Pau  and  thence  au  deld.  We  knew  it  lay 
somewhere  beyond  Pau,  to  which  city, 
English-haunted,  we  had  letters  that  we 
hoped  never  to  present;  that  it  lay  some¬ 
where  beyond  Oloron  where  the  portal  of 
S.  Mary’s  church  looks  already  more  Span- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

Crest  of  the  Pyrenees 


THE  WAY 

141 

ish  than  then  we  knew.  Bedous  was  the 
present  terminus. 

The  last  part  of  the  way  was  stirring. 
We  had  left  the  soggy  plain,  with  its  water- 
channels  and  its  dark  green  stuff,  all  irri¬ 
gated.  The  pale  far  crests  of  the  Pyrenees, 
and  their  blue  gulfs  in  between,  we  had 
lost  from  sight  in  the  approach:  —  say, 
at  Lourdes,  or  shortly  thereafter.  There 
everyone  else  had  got  down,  for  there  was 
the  end  of  their  pilgrimage.  About  the 
train,  as  it  halts,  the  hills  rise  kindly,  a 
little  river  winds  clean  and  pure  below,  the 
rock  still  stands,  with  a  living  spring  be¬ 
neath —  all  the  ancient  site  where  celts  and 
arrow-heads  are  still  dug  up,  where  earliest 
man  and  thereafter  his  sons  came  worship¬ 
ping,  before  any  history  had  begun.  Be¬ 
tween  the  great  flanks  of  the  mountains 
lie  valleys  blue  like  the  calm  blue  that 
sleeps  in  a  horse’s  eye;  in  an  hour  the  train 
had  burrowed  among  the  red  and  tawny 
rocks  of  them,  and  through  the  cold  air 
of  torrents  it  climbed  and  twisted,  through 
the  scent  of  dark  fir  trees;  and  when  the 
laborious  panting  engine  was  quiet  a 

Lourdes 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

1 

142 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Bedous 

moment,  the  green  stream  below  roared 
into  stillness.  Twilight  closed  in  upon  the 
glimmering  rapids,  among  the  dark  tree 
trunks,  and  in  the  pale  strip  of  sky  some 
pale  stars  shook,  before  the  line  suddenly 
stopped,  as  though  it  too  were  only  halting 
for  the  night  or  for  a  week,  while  the  great 
building  of  the  railway  went  on  incessantly. 
Having  asked  a  few  questions  at  Oloron, 
and  knowing  beforehand  that  wherever 
engineers  could  sleep,  there  could  we,  with 
thankfulness  we  undid  the  bags  in  an 
interval  and  took  out  the  ultimate  in- 
dispensables  for  a  night;  then,  at  Bedous, 
abandoning  the  rest  in  a  corner  of  the 
station,  walked  out  into  the  dark  of  a 
village  street  behind  a  friendly  railway 
employee.  We  need  have  no  fear,  he 
assured  us,  for  the  man  who  drove  the 
daily  motor  omnibus  would  put  up  that 
night  at  the  inn.  There  was  no  porter,  for 
nobody  was  expected  by  the  evening  train, 
but  he  carried  the  little  sack  as  well  as  the 
post  bags,  and  guided  us,  stopping  for 
various  matters  on  the  way,  down  the 
whole  straggling  white-faced  village  to  the 

I  , 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

143 

inn.  When  we  got  there  at  last,  no  room 
remained;  the  landlady  was  honestly  sorry, 
not  so  we,  for  the  men  eating  and  drinking 
looked  in  the  candlelight  noisily  disposed. 
There  was,  it  came  out,  another  inn,  to 
which  the  maidservant  kindly  took  us, 
“though  it  is  not  like  ours,”  she  said 
proudly.  They  were  all  so  honest  and 
proud,  in  Bedous, — the  new  landlady,  again, 
in  her  offer  to  send  out  and  buy  meat  at 
that  hour  of  the  night.  We  supped  con¬ 
tentedly,  after  a  homely  fashion,  and  went 
to  bed  above  the  mules  in  a  room  big 
enough  for  town  meeting.  One  end  opened 
above  the  little  street  of  houses  that  re¬ 
called  the  Engadine,  stuccoed  and  iron- 
barred,  the  other  on  a  wooden  gallery 
above  a  garden  that  smelt  of  lilies  and 
roses  under  the  dew-fall,  and  at  the  end 
of  every  opening  and  above  the  crest  of 
every  building  rose  into  the  filmy  moon¬ 
light  the  vast  back  of  mountains. 

Next  morning,  when  the  yellow  motor 
omnibus  backed  out  of  a  hangar  and  cir¬ 
cled  up  to  the  station,  for  passengers  arriv¬ 
ing  or  awaiting,  we  sought  out  the  driver 

A  Pyre¬ 
nean 

village 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

144 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  river- 
road 

and  bribed  him  with  a  small  fee  over  and 
above  the  extra  fare,  to  allow  us  on  the  seat 
beside  him,  whereby  the  other  man  in 
corduroys  who  took  up  fares  and  handed 
down  bundles,  and  the  like,  travelled  most 
of  the  forty  miles  to  Jaca  on  the  step, 
holding  fast  by  the  dashboard.  Including 
all  stops,  and  the  customs  examination  at 
Canfranc,  we  ran  those  forty  miles  in  four 
hours,  along  the  little  river  valley.  Every¬ 
where  it  was  lovely,  but  not  so  romantic 
as  that  of  the  night  before:  a  perfect  road, 
hard  and  white,  ran  easily,  for  the  most 
part  almost  by  the  water  side;, and  now 
above  it,  now  below,  sometimes  even  on  the 
other  side  of  the  stream,  ran  the  railway 
that  should  carry  back  and  forth,  between 
France  and  Spain,  where  once  the  pilgrims 
passed.  Being  bom  and  bred  to  railways, 
one  could  admire  the  building,  so  skilful 
that  it  looked  easy,  done  in  accord  with  the 
modem  admission  that  the  Indians’  way 
was  the  right  one — the  way  of  the  makers 
of  trails,  who  expend  less  strength  going 
around  an  object  than  climbing  over  it, 
and  bend  the  path  if  a  tree  falls  or  a  rock 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

145 

topples.  On  that  summer  day  the  men 
expected  that  two  years  more  would  see  it 
done:  the  two  years  are  passed  and  much, 
belike,  has  been  undone,  and  the  rest 
remains  untouched,  but  the  road  yet  runs. 
So  there  it  ran,  now  white  and  winding 
above  the  river  bottom,  now  grey  and 
barred  with  shadows  wThere  a  village 
flanked  it  on  either  side.  Dogs  fled, 
children  were  snatched  back,  the  glare  of 
mountain  light  was  tempered  for  a  brief 
space,  and  then  grey  hillsides  drew  away 
again  and  grey  stucco  lay  far  behind.  In 
the  first  hour  the  houses,  square  and 
colour-washed,  their  windows  square  and 
barred,  still  recalled  the  Engadine,  as 
indeed  do,  a  little,  the  mountains,  in  their 
large  lassitude,  so  un-Alpine.  Then  one 
was  aware  of  small  iron  balconies  more 
frequent,  and  the  slope  of  the  roofs  un¬ 
familiar  and  alien.  The  river  is  left  sud¬ 
denly  below,  to  burrow  like  the  railway 
through  the  international  barrier,  but  the 
highway  climbs  in  many  loops  a  vast 
mountainous  bulk,  set  there  as  if  ordained 
for  a  barrier,  though  it  has  never  stopped 

and 

Engadine 

houses 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

146 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

S  ummo 
porlu 

Visigothic  king  or  French  bishop,  Charle¬ 
magne  or  Bonaparte. 

The  fort  of  Urdos  is  a  mere  rocky  boss 
in  the  midst  of  rock,  crowning  a  wooded 
spur,  and  the  granite  way  zigzagging  up 
to  it  is  walled  and  loopholed;  the  very 
granite  mass  of  the  mountain  is  loopholed 
and  fortified.  Then  green  trees,  the  light¬ 
leaved  sort,  were  left. 

Somewhere  here  a  shapeless  rocky  mass, 
of  weather-worn  stones  that  once  were 
hewn,  marks  the  site  of  the  Hospice  of  S. 
Cristina.  From  the  time  of  the  Goths1 
existed  on  the  crest  of  the  Pyrenees  above 
Jaca,  a  shelter  where  various  monks  took 
care  of  pilgrims  that  passed  that  Port. 
Aymery  Picaud  praised  it  before  all: — hos- 
pitale  S .  Chris tinae,  unum  de  tribus  hos- 
pitalibus  cosmi.2  Gaston  IV  of  Bearn, 
a  hero  of  the  first  Crusade,  founded  and 
Gaston  V  in  1216  refounded  the  hospice 
above  Somport, 3  and  the  name  of  that  town 
is  summo  porlu,  the  pitch  of  the  pass.  He 
dowered  it  with  various  revenues  in  Aragon 
and  gave  it  to  canons  of  S.  Augustine. 
King  Alfonso  of  Aragon,  great  lords  of 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

147 

Spain,  Gascony,  Hungary,  and  Bohemia, 
contributed  to  its  foundation,  and  built  in 
their  domains  hospices  depending  on  it.  It 
lasted  till  1558  and  then,  like  so  many  other 
ancient  and  pious  works,  it  was  removed 
to  the  capital. 4  Possibly  the  monks  pre¬ 
ferred  living  in  town :  certainly  the  crown 
preferred  their  keeping  within  reach. 

When  Leonore  of  England,  the  daughter 
of  Eleanore  of  Poitou  and  the  sister  of 
Cceur-de-Lion,  came  into  Spain  to  marry 
Alfonso  VIII,  five  Spanish  bishops  met 
her  at  Bordeaux,  and  with  them  “the 
most  exquisite  flower  of  the  nobility  of  both 
Castiles,  ” 5  white  monks  and  black,  Cister¬ 
cian  and  Benedictine,  and  especially  the 
great  dignitaries  of  the  Religious  Orders. 
With  them  came  back  by  the  Port  of  Aspe, 
by  Somport  and  Canfranc,  a  noble  escort 
of  her  own  people:  the  archbishop  of  Bor¬ 
deaux,  the  bishops  of  Agen,  Poitiers,  Angou- 
leme,  Saintes,  Perigord,  and  Beziers,  and  a 
host  of  lords  and  knights,  English,  Gascon, 
Breton,  and  Norman.  They  rode  together 
as  far  as  Tarazona,  escorted  by  Alfonso  of 
Aragon,  to  be  met  there  by  her  spouse,  his 

A  Queen’s 
progress 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

148 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

The  King¬ 
dom’s 
limits 

namesake  of  Castile,  with  all  the  prelates 
and  nobles  left  in  Spain,  it  would  seem; 
and  thence  the  visitors  turned  back  again 
in  July  weather,  heavy  horse  and  sleek 
mule,  steel-armed  knight  and  frieze-cowled 
monk,  velvet  cloak  and  silken  cope,  climb¬ 
ing  the  brilliant  dusty  steeps,  filling  the 
pass  with  the  heat  and  murmur  of  a  mov¬ 
ing  multitude. 

The  still  upland  heights  were  open, 
rocky,  heathy,  pasturable,  when  we  reached 
the  plain  stone  column  that  marks  the 
limits  of  a  kingdom:  just  before  the  last 
boundary  post  a  beautiful  range  opened  up 
to  reveal  beds  of  snow  and  crests  of  carven 
rock.  There  the  car  stopped  an  instant, 
the  man  in  corduroy  running  to  the  road¬ 
side  to  receive  from  a  goatherd  waiting  a 
knotted  kerchief  full  of  curds.  This  he 
hung  on  the  front  of  the  car,  for  whey  to 
splash  and  spatter  and  yield  him  in  Jaca  a 
goodly  lump  of  cheese. 

The  trontier  is  at  the  top  but  the  customs 
at  the  bottom:  we  coasted  down  to  find 
a  pair  of  the  neatest,  smallest,  civilest 
Spanish  soldiers  imaginable,  in  their  sum- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

A  Pyrenean  Village 


THE  WAY 

mer  uniform  of  white  with  a  grey  hair¬ 
line,  just  pulling  on  clean  white  cotton 
gloves  in  which  to  examine  our  luggage. 
The  wonder  was  how  they  got  so  much 
courtesy  into  so  brief  a  matter.  In  the 
little  towns  now  men  wore  alpargatas  and 
flat  caps;  they  had  lost  the  candid  French 
look.  One  hundred  years  of  liberie  and 
egalite  have  given,  some  meaning  to  the 
word  fraternity ,  and  when  you  cross  a  fron¬ 
tier  into  France  you  know  it  in  the  eyes 
that  meet  your  own.  so  friendly  and  frank. 
The  French  look  says,  you  are  good  as  I; 
the  Spanish,  I  am  as  good  as  you — usually, 
better.  Of  quite  plain  people  this  is  meant. 

Another  river  wras  running  beside  the 
road,  between  the  rocks.  The  landscape 
was  widening,  with  an  indefinably  Spanish 
look  in  the  colours  and  contours,  the  brown 
dust  and  palisaded  cliffs.  The  impression 
yields  to  one  of  a  dusty  plain,  white  with 
dust,  immense  within  the  blue  enclosing 
heights;  of  an  arid  heat  that  intoxicates 
and  blinds;  then  two  lines  of  river-bordering 
trees  that  converge;  and  lastly,  the  dusty 
brown  walls  of  Jaca  and  towers  within  them. 

HISPANIC  NOTES 


151 


I,  as  good 
as  you 


152 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

Muy  noble , 
muy  leal,  y 
vencedora 

II 

HEART  OF  ARAGON 

De  esta  nobleza  quc  es 
gozar  de  libertad  mas 
goza  el  noble  Aragon  quc 
todos  los  reinos,  porque 
hasta  sus  villanos  faze  ser 
mas  nobles  que  los  nobles 
mas  nobles  de  las  otras 
provincias  del  mundo.  Cd 
nazen  tan  libres,  viven  tan 
francos,  son  tan  esentos 
los  villanos  de  Aragon I — 
Fray  Guaberto  Fabricio. 

The  city  still  keeps  a  kind  of  state,  the 
houses  are  built  of  stone,  their  facades 
adorned  not  merely  with  monstrous  rococo 
coats-of-arms  but  with  Romanesque  mould¬ 
ings  and  Gothic  traceries,  not  frittered 
away  in  glass  galleries;  the  streets  straight 
and  well  paven,  the  cathedral  dominant. 
La  muy  noble,  muy  leal,  y  vencedora,  Jaca 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

T  HE  W  A  Y 

«T1 

was  already  great  in  Roman  days,  strong  in 
Visigothie;  was  the  last  to  yield  to  the 
Arab  conqueror  Ayub  (as  late  as  715)  and 
the  first  to  rise  and  support  the  struggle 
of  Count  Aznar  (758-795).  Court  of  the 
counts  of  Aragon,  and  seat  and  stronghold 
of  the  .kings  their  successors,  from  the  first 
Ramiro  down,  it  holds  the  type  pure,  in  the 
figures  of  the  brown  small  men,  the  spare 
swift  grace  of  the  women,  the  strong 
Romanesque  forms  of  the  cathedral. 
Though  the  fairs  of  Jaca  in  the  latter 
Middle  Age  drew  merchants  from  Aragon, 
France,  and  Navarre,  these  brought  no 
changes  with  them;  and  like  the  coinage 
that  fixed  the  standard  of  the  realm,  those 
sueldos  jaqueses  that  kings  on  their  coro¬ 
nation  swore  to  maintain'  undebased,  so 
the  temper  of  the  people  kept  the  one 
image  and  superscription. 

How  unlike  is  Aragon  to  Castile,  we  were 
to  feel  later  more  strongly,  most  aware 
now  of  the  entirely  Spanish  quality  of  it  all. 
The  boy  in  al  par  galas,  with  his  swift  sound¬ 
less  movements,  entering  on  a  message,  with 
his  snowy  linen  shirt,  and  velvet  jacket 

Last  to 
yield,  first 
to  rise 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

154 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

EL  Gracioso 

worn  over  one  shoulder,  with  his  bold  eyes 
and  fine  teeth,  was  just  the  gracioso  of  the 
old  comedy.  He  was  all  one  golden  tone, 
the  sunburnt  dress,  hair,  and  fine  skin, 
relieved  by  the  shadow  on  his  upper  lip 
and  the  deeper  shadow  of  his  eyelashes. 
Unhappily,  when  hired  to  pose  for  a 
photograph,  he  looked  silly  enough,  but 
once  released,  his  comment,  I  make 
no  doubt,  was  in  the  antique  vein,  spiced 
and  seasoned,  and  sent  up  in  good 
Castilian. 

Don  Quixote  you  remember  was  a  Cas¬ 
tilian,  so  indeed  were  the  Cid  and  Al¬ 
fonso  the  Wise;  Jaime  I  el  Conquistador 
and  D.  Martin  the  Humane  were  of  Ara¬ 
gon;  but  the  distinction  is  easier  to  appre¬ 
hend  than  to  make  plain.  Aragon  is  more 
European,  Castile  more  Peninsular;  the 
one  presents  the  ideal  Romantic  of  chivalry 
and  humanism,  Mediterranean,  almost 
Frank,  almost  Latin;  the  other  cherishes 
the  quintessential,  the  Iberian,  condensed, 
insistent,  the  self-centered,  self-judged,  and 
self-approved. 

In  the  kingdom  of  Aragon  alone  was 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

155 

there  anything  of  the  feudal  system,  and, 
from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Reconquest, 
something  in  the  way  of  a  Parliament, 
with  right  of  election  and  recall.  The 
fueros  of  Jaca  in  the  twelfth  century  sup¬ 
plied  a  model  for  those  of  Castile,  Navarre, 
and  elsewhere.  The  famous  haughty  for¬ 
mula  will  bear  quoting  again:  “ Nos”— the 
nobles  say  to  their  king  new-crowned,  — 
“Nos  que  valemos  ianio  como  vos  y  pode- 
mos  mas  que  vos,  os  elijimos  rey  con  tal  que 
gardareis  nuestros  fueros  y  liberlades,  y 
enlre  vos  y  nos  uno  que  manda  mas  que  vos: 
si  no,  no!”1 

The  pride  of  the  nobles  gave  their  vassals 
liberty,  and  the  need  of  the  king  gave  the 
cities  rights.  King  and  Cortes  are  mutually 
dependent— “For  neither  the  king  without 
the  kingdom,  nor  the  kingdom  without  the 
king,  may  severally  make  a  law  of  the  land 
nor  alter  that  agreed  to  once,  but  all  united 
must  conjoin  in  making  new  laws  and 
providing  for  the  weal  and  regiment  of  all: 
and  the  more  that  is  done  without  admix¬ 
ture  of  any  force,  cautel  or  deceit,  by  so 
much  the  more  is  it  more  estimable,  stabler, 

Fueros 

|  AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

156 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Constitu¬ 

tionalism 

and  diviner.”2  Thus  the  Chronicle  of 
Aragon,  which  breaks  out  elsewhere,  to 
proclaim  in  a  droll  passion  of  constitution¬ 
alism,  “that  it  is  greater  grandeur  and 
majesty  to  be  king  of  kings  than  king  of 
caytiffs, — that  those  who  rule  kings  are 
(and  all  the  more  those  who  rule  well)  like 
the  Aragonese,  who  may  make  no  law 
without  a  common  accord  and  have  place 
and  power  to  say  what  best  to  them  beseems 
in  respect  of  the  regiment  of  the  realm, 
that  greater  king  there  may  not  be  than 
the  king  who  rules  such  kings  and  lords  as 
the  men  of  Aragon  be.” 

Individuality  of  this  metal  does  not  take 
easily  a  strange  stamp,  and  there  are  no 
foreign  traces  on  the  cathedral  here.  Jaca 
was  the  mountain  capital  when  the  plain 
yet  lay  in  power  of  the  Hagarenes.  3  In 
the  eleventh  century  the  bishop  of  Ar¬ 
agon,  whose  seat  was  in  Jaca,  exercised 
jurisdiction  not  only  over  the  Chris¬ 
tians  of  the  Mountain,  but  over  the 
Mozarabes  of  Huesca.  In  Saragossa  they 
had  their  own  Bishop  and  possibly  also  in 
Tarrazona. 4 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

157 

Jaca :  the  Cathedral. 

There  still,  although  the 
world  autumnal  he  and 
pale. 

Still  in  their  golden  ves¬ 
ture  the  old  saints 
prevail; 

Alone  with  Christ,  deso¬ 
late  else,  left  by  man¬ 
kind. 

The  quality  named  architectonic,  seems 
alien  to  the  Spanish  genius.  This  appears 
in  many  ways,  some  of  them  very  curious : 
in  excessive  formalism  in  the  Spanish 
drama,  for  instance,  as  if  the  author  could 
not  move  himself  without  the  steel  and 
buckram  of  theatrical  convention,  and  in 
the  interminable  assonances  which  every 
poetry  but  the  Spanish  outgrew  some  cen¬ 
turies  earlier;  or,  again,  in  the  attitudinizing 
formulae  of  Berruguete’s  choir-stalls;  but 
nowhere  so  much  as  in  the  architecture. 
The  average  Spanish  church  has  no  par¬ 
ticular  shape,  when  you  look  at  it.  Barring 
the  great  cathedrals  built  by  foreign  inspira¬ 
tion  and  under  foreign  direction,  they  are 
too  often  mere  lumps.  The  king’s  daughter 

Architec¬ 

tonics 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

158 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

l  ilium 
inter  spinas 

is  all  glorious  within,  but  outside  she  looks 
like  a  tat  market-wife.  Yet  as  the  butter- 
woman  was  once  a  trim  milk-maid,  Jaca 
cathedral  was  a  fine  sight  once.  From 
the  cloister  garth,  amid  the  rose  of  Sha¬ 
ron,  the  lilium  inter  spinas,  rusty  fir  tree, 
and  potted  bamboo,  you  may  make  out 
above  the  built-up  cloister  face  the  gable  of 
the  transept  roof,  the  low  tower  to  mark 
the  crossing,  the  bold  round-headed  win¬ 
dows  of  the  aisle,  quite  blocked  now. 
Then,  crossing  the  beautiful  and  dim  in¬ 
terior,  you  may  pass  by  way  of  a  market 
square  to  a  glimpse  of  one  remaining  side 
apse  with  its  own  noble  round-arched 
window  richly  moulded,  its  billet-moulded 
cornice  carried  on  splendid  and  fantastic 
corbels,  where  the  spaces  between  these, 
and  the  under  face  of  the  cornice,  are 
carved  with  foliage,  rosettes,  and  other 
luxuriant  and  highly  developed  forms,  all 
this,  however,  hidden  behind  a  ten-foot 
wall  overflowing  with  eglantine  and  fra¬ 
grant  leafage. 

Within,  it  is  wonderfully  little  spoiled. 
The  stone  that  turned  brown  as  iron  under 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

159 

the  suns  of  Aragon  is  a  graver  grey  in  the 
quiet  indoor  light,  almost  a  silvery  in  the 
sculptures  of  tomb  and  retable.  Enter 
from  the  blazing  square;  the  light  is  cool 
and  grave,  the  vista  lofty  and  noble. 
There  are  cathedrals  which  have  been 
erected  from  parish  churches;  there  are 
others  built  express  which  might  as  well 
have  been  that;  this  is  none  of  them.  Not 
large,  it  is  yet  princely. 

The  kingdom  of  Sobrarbe  was  founded 
in  the  seventh  century,  and  this  see  in  the 
ninth,  but  not  a  stone  is  earlier  than  that 
church  of  the  eleventh  (commenced  a.d. 
1040)  where  nine  Bishops  attended  a  coun¬ 
cil  and  after  consecrating  the  new  edifice 
(i.  e.,  probably  apses  and  transepts)  signed 
a  document  which  survives.  This  was  in 
1063.  The  transepts  and  apses  alone  can 
belong  to  this  date:  to  the  end  of  that 
century  the  enclosing  walls,  the  west  door, 
and  the  beginning  of  the  western  tower :  to 
the  close  of  the  twelfth  the  aisles  of  the 
nave:  to  the  fifteenth  their  rib-vaulting, 
sexpartite,  and  the  elaborate  sexpartite 
vaults  of  the  nave  that,  leaving  the  fabric 

Where 
light  is 
silent 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

i6o 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The 

original 

church 

below  practically  untouched,  descend  upon 
consoles  to  a  sort  of  cornice  under  the 
clerestory  windows,  at  about  the  springing 
of  the  original  great  barrel  vault. 1  Then 
the  eighteenth  century  overhauled  gener¬ 
ally.  It  is  easy  for  the  imagination  to 
construct  the  original  Romanesque  church, 
of  which  the  barrel-vaulted  transepts 
give  the  scale,  and  the  great  cruciform 
piers,  that  alternate  with  cylindrical  col¬ 
umns,  suggest  the  mass:  many  capitals 
have  lasted  on  from  this,  some  historied 
and  some  of  strong  stiff  leafage,  and  a  bil¬ 
let  moulding  at  the  springing  of  the  vault 
and  semi -dome. 

There  were  four  bays  to  the  great  nave, 
and  the  piers  carried  just  such  transverse 
arches  as  may  still  be  seen  on  the  four 
openings  of  the  crossing  and  against  the 
end  walls  of  the  transepts.  On  them  rested 
the  strong  barrel  vault,  windowless,  the 
light  coming  from  the  lofty  aisles  vaulted 
in  a  plain  quadripartite  form,  unribbed, 
for  which  the  alternate  columns  of  the 
nave  sufficed.  The  eastern  end  had  three 
parallel  apses,  the  central  one  very  deep; 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


161 


it  opened  directly  from  the  transept,  and 
the  central  portion  of  this  is  covered  by  an 
octagonal  dome  under  a  low  lantern,  vaulted 
on  ribs  that  spring  from  the  centre  of  each 
of  the  cardinal  sides  and  from  arches  thrown 
across  the  comers — i.  e.,  squinches.  In  this 
same  way  the  vault  is  turned  in  the  apsidal 
chapels  at  Las  Huelgas,  in  the  Constable’s 
at  Burgos,  and  under  the  lantern  at  Irache, 
and  it  is  a  Spanish  builder’s  way.2  At  a 
time  when  the  builders  of  Auvergne  were 
opening  the  first  tribunes  of  their  dark- 
naves,  and  those  of  Languedoc  were  turning 
the  first  ambulatory  around,  their  lofty 
apses,  the  king’s  men  here  had  carried  a 
form,  simpler  indeed,  to  a  greater  perfec¬ 
tion.  D.  Jose  Maria  Quadradro  quotes 
from  a  parchment  in  the  cathedral  archives, 
the  prescription  of  Ramiro’s  foundation: 

.  .  .  Quod  ejus  tectum  fiat  et  perfieiatur 
de  crota  lapidea  sive  boalta  per  omnes 
tres  naves  sive  iongitudines  inelpientes 
ab  introitu  magne  porte  usque  ad  altaria 
majora  que  sunt  in  capita  ipsius  ecelesie, 
et  una  turns  supra  dictarn  portam  ubi 
jam  incepimus  earn  hedificare  pro  cam- 


a  Spanish 
builder’s 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  !  I 


1 62 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Lights  and 
incense 

panali  cum  octo  campanis,  quatuor 
magnis  et  duabus  mediocris,  et  duabus 
parvis,  cum  quibus  Dominus  noster  pius 
Pater  excelsus  laudari  et  universus 
populus  evocari  possit,  cuius  tegumen 
volumus  etiam  fieri  de  lapide  firmo.3 

Then  he  continues  with  provisions  for 
eight  lamps  to  bum  continually  and  in¬ 
cense  to  smoke  upward  at  all  hours  of 
day  and  night.  This  is  rather  an  exercise 
in  rhetoric  than  a  builder’s  instruction, 
and  the  king  is  more  concerned  with  the 
bells  and  lights  and  incense  of  his  daily 
worship  than  with  the  fabric  already  going 
up,  but  from  it  we  make  out  the  Spanish 
vaulted  type  unmodified.  In  the  time  of 
his  son  Sancho  Ramirez  the  rule  of  Cluny 
was  introduced  into  the  convent  of  S. 
Juan  de  la  Pena  and  some  other  royal 
houses  of  the  north,4  but  there  is  no  evi¬ 
dence  that  builders  were  fetched  during 
this  reform,  nor  is  it  likely  that  the  princely 
bishop  of  Jaca  would  have  borrowed  any 
from  the  proud  abbot  of  S.  Juan.  Rela¬ 
tions  were  strained:  at  the  Council  of  Jaca 
the  said  abbot  had  affixed  his  signature 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

163 

before  any  of  the  bishops  present,  and  in 

1076  the  bishop  of  Jaca,  D.  Garcia,  Infant 

Infant  of 

of  Aragon,  opposed  the  undertakings  and 

Aragon 

exemptions  of  the  abbot. 5 

The  western  narthex,  below  the  tower, 
was  already  commenced  at  the  dedication: 
it  was  three  bays  in  depth  and  possibly  once 
more  than  one  in  breadth,  but  not  pro¬ 
bably.  The  square  projection  westward 
is  characteristic  of  Asturian  and  Visigothic 
churches,  and  the  narthex  at  S.  Martial  of 
Limoges6  and  at  S.  Benoit-sur-Loire,  which 
might  have  afforded  models  of  a  close- 

pillared  Galilee,  were  not  yet  builded,  for 
they  both  must  be  referred  to  the  height 
of  the  twelfth  century.  The  low  chamber 
here,  with  storied  capitals  and  tympanum 
sculptured  with  the  labarum,  is  elder.  The 
sacred  symbol  is  treated  like  eight  rays  or 
spokes,  with  roses  in  between,  and  flanked 
by  a  pair  of  symbolic  and  rather  oriental 
lions,  the  one  respecting  a  fallen  man,  which 

God’s 

signifies  that  God’s  judgements  are  dis- 

judge- 

armed  by  contrition,  the  other  trampling 

meats 

disarmed 

on  human  heads,  in  sign  of  Christ  taking 
empire  over  death. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

164 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

The  south 
porch 

The  beautiful  and  airy  portico  on  the 
south  flank,  while  Romanesque,  is  of  the 
latest  and  most  perfect  period.  That  side 
porch  is  not  peculiar  to  Spanish  churches, 
but  it  is  very  common  among  them. 
Only  a  few  leagues  away,  at  Tiermas,  the 
parish  church  has  another,  just  such, 
except  that  it  is  quite  formless.  Transept 
ptortals  in  purely  Spanish  building  are 
rare,  even  when  conditions  seem  to  exact 
them,  as  at  Las  Huelgas:  instead,  you  get 
the  opening  in  the  flank.  If  the  two  fine 
portals  at  Estella  may  pass  as  imposed  by 
the  fall  of  the  ground,  this  cannot  be  urged 
of  S.  Vincent  at  Avila  or  S.  Martin  or  S. 
Millan  at  Segovia.  Neither  of  these  last 
churches  has  a  proper  transept,  which  also 
is  characteristic.  There  seems  to  be  an 
elder  Romanesque  tradition,  which  appears 
in  France  at  S.  Benoit-sur-Loire,  for 
instance,  and  Notre-Dame-la-Grande  of 
Poitiers,  and  S.  Seurin  of  Bordeaux,  which 
explains  the  early  and  precious  portal  of 
Bordeaux  cathedral,  and  determines  the 
side  door  in  the  rather  archaic  cathedral 
of  Avila.  It  is  this  which  is  invoked  to 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

165 

explain  the  symbolism  of  the  wounds  of 
Christ  in  the  five  doorways  of  the  church, 
and  the  Spanish  practice  may  possibly  be 
determined  by  the  greater  glory  of  His 
wounded  Side. 

S.  Juan  de  la  Pena. 

Fundamenta  ejus  in 
montibus  sanctis;  gloriosa 
dicta  sunt  de  te. 

At  three  o’clock  the  gracioso  called  up 
from  the  street  under  Jehane’s  balcony,  and 
before  four  we  were  driving  in  a  purple 
starlight,  that  deepened  and  blanched, 
along  the  river  Aragon,  fringed  like  all 
Spanish  waters  with  green  linden  and 
plane-trees.  A  ray  shot  up  and  the  moun¬ 
tains  turned  to  the  purple  of  heather;  the 
primrose  brightness  grew  and  they  turned 
blue ;  lastly  came  up  a  white-hot  mass  and 
they  were  vaporous.  By  the  water-side 
grew  wild  iris,  and  on  the  other  side  of 
the  road  wild  rose  and  hawthorn.  We 
passed  that  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Victo- 

Dawn 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

1 66 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Escula- 

bolsas 

ries  which  commemorates  the  wives  and 
daughters  who  could  not  stay  idle  in  Jaca 
while  their  men  made  a  stand  against  the 
Moors.  In  the  white  mantles  and  veils  of 
their  sheltered  life  they  made  a  sudden 
sally  and  turned  the  day  and  helped  the 
slaughter. 1  At  a  grange  called  Esculabolsas 
where  men  were  piling  logs  by  the  roadside, 
we  waited  while  two  mules  were  fetched 
and  a  guide,  and  with  them  a  lame  dog 
who  looked  like  a  wolf,  yellow  and  elderly ; 
with  these  we  struck  up  toward  the  moun¬ 
tain  through  stony  lanes  almost  like  the 
English,  along  a  brookside.  Logs  were 
dragging  down  the  brook,  each  at  a  horse’s 
heels,  and  the  high  bank  of  the  lane  was 
often  musical  with  water-channels  and 
flashing  where  the  runnel  spilled  over  into  a 
terraced  field.  For  a  long  time  a  sort  of 
doubtful  tower  rose  ahead. 

At  the  very  head  of  this  valley  stands  S. 
Cruz  de  la  Seros, 2  of  the  Sisterhood,  a 
convent  abandoned  when  the  nuns,  feeling 
it  lonesome  in  the  country,  moved  into 
town  in  1552.  The  convent  has  fallen  away 
into  ruins,  but  the  church  is  fairly  intact. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

167 

Just  a  minute  upstream  from  the  poor  little 
village,  it  lifts  well  above  the  willows  and 
alders  of  the  high  bank  a  series  of  high  and 
heavy  masses.  The  great  tower,  crowned 
by  a  low  octagon  and  pierced  by  pairs  of 
windows  in  the  upper  stages,  stands  above 
the  south  transept,  of  which  the  walls  are 
incorporate  with  it  and  from  which  projects 
one  of  the  two  shallow,  square-faced  struc¬ 
tures  thatenclose  the  lateral  apses.  Between 
them  the  vast  central  apse,  semicircular,  di¬ 
vided  by  attached  columns,  adorned  with 
moulded  windows,  round-headed  and  shaft¬ 
ed  in  the  jambs,  is  crowned  by  a  cornice 
on  corbels  and  a  low  roof.  The  face  of  the 
east  wall  is  continued  up  a  long  way,  and 
roofed  by  a  sort  of  low  pyramid,  the  church 
having  above  the  crossing  a  true  lantern, 
thus  disguised  on  the  outside  and  hidden 
on  the  inside  by  a  vaulted  bay.  Approach¬ 
ing  from  the  north,  the  effect  is  odd :  above 
and  beyond  the  flat  end  wall  of  the  transept 
you  see  a  high  square  structure  sustaining 
a  low  broad  octagon  and  behind  this  again, 
not  much  higher,  another  square,  octagon- 
topped.  The  tiny  nave  runs  off,  absurdly 

S.  Cruz  de 
la  Ser6s 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

i68 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Auvergne 

low.  The  apse  appears  in  strong  profile; 
and  all  these  square  contours,  while  not 
structurally  so  connected,  as  S.  Maria  at 
Tarrasa  is  really,  perhaps,  related — yet  do 
a  little  recall  the  characteristic  architec¬ 
ture  of  Auvergne.  That  is  almost  the  only 
hint  of  the  sort,  however,  here  in  the  heart 
of  Aragon. 

The  nave  will  have  been  low  always,  and 
at  present  a  number  of  steps  lead  down 
into  it.  The  portal  looks  like  Benedictine 
work  of  the  twelfth  century:  it  is  enclosed 
by  a  strong  billet  and  adorned  by  a  superb 
roll  moulding,  and  then  by  balls  disposed 
at  regular  intervals  in  a  hollow — an  ugly 
motive  too  frequent  in  twelfth  century 
work,  which  was  to  be  revived  with  fa¬ 
tal  enthusiasm  by  Torquemada  and  the 
Catholic  kings.  Quadrado,3  publishing  a 
sketch  that  shows  mins  now  disappeared, 
copies  also  three  lines  of  Latin  verse  about 
the  doorway  and  a  fourth  in  the  cornice: 

Janua  sum  praepcs:  per  me  transilc, 
fideles. 

Fons  ego  sum  vitae;  plus  me  quatn  vina 
sitite, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

169 

virgines  hoc  templum  quisque  penetrare 
beatum. 

Corrige  te  primurn ,  valeas  quo  poscere 
Xristum. 

The  low  lunette  of  the  tympanum,  carved 
with  the  chrism  and  a  pair  of  lions,  is 
copied  from  that  of  Jaca,  but  a  daisy  or 
sunflower  is  unexpectedly  dropped  into 
the  space  below  one  of  these.  Of  two 
shafts  on  which  the  great  torus  de¬ 
scends,  the  right-hand  is  transitional ;  under 
true  volutes  you  find  a  sheath  curling 
over  a  ball  (rather  than  a  bud);  the  left- 
hand  has,  also  under  volutes,  a  pair  of 
lions  and  other  beasts  more  Lombard¬ 
looking  than  those  above,  with  the  same 
brutal  heaviness  as  some  of  the  monstrous 
things  at  the  Seo  de  Urgell.  Benedictine, 
twelfth  century,  regional  —  that  is  the  con¬ 
clusion  of  the  whole  matter,  exception 
made  of  the  sunflower. 

Inside,  the  western  gallery  rests  on  one 
fantastic  shaft,  which  the  holy-water 
stoup  encircles.  There  are  three  bays  of 
barrel  vault,  out  of  the  easternmost  of 
which  open  the  transepts  without  occupy- 

Benedic¬ 

tines 

/ 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

ijo 

WAY  OF  S,  JAMES 

Exotic 

traits 

ing  the  whole  of  it;  the  apse  is  preceded 
by  a  shallow  bay  and  occupies  no  more 
than  a  third  of  a  circle.  That  you  could 
never  divine  the  lantern,  strongly  suggests 
that  it  was  an  exotic  idea.  The  transept 
arms  are  cross-ribbed,  with  a  very  domical 
vault;  a  billet  moulding  runs  along  the 
top  of  the  wall  and  lunettes  fill  the  space 
below  the  vaulting  —  another  suggestive 
trait.  The  side  apses  are  of  course  very 
shallow,  lighted  by  a  single  window,  now 
half  blocked  up,  at  the  central  line  where 
the  square  outer  face  of  the  mass  is  tan¬ 
gential  to  their  curve. 

M.  de  Lasteyrie  says  this  is  frequent  in 
Byzantine  architecture.  I  should  have 
thought  it  came  either  from  Asia  Minor 
or  from  Rome.  Apses  in  this  form  are 
found  in  the  undated  churches  on  the 

Anatolian 

and 

Provencal 

Anatolian  plateau;  and,  later,  in  Provence, 
in  the  crypt  of  Montmajour  and  at  Ma- 
guelonne.  Now  the  bishops  of  Mague- 
lonne  figure  frequently  in  the  ecclesiology 
of  this  region,  and  Bishop  Godfrey  went 
along  this  road  when  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena 
was  consecrated. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

171 

A  narrow  and  steep  staircase  leads  up 
from  the  nave,  in  the  thickness  of  the 
wall.  The  lantern  consists  of  a  superb 
vaulted  chamber  with  four  ribs,  mould¬ 
ed,  supported  on  four  shafts  in  the 
centre  of  the  sides,  and  deep  niches  in 
the  corners.  The  stones  of  the  vault 
are  laid  horizontally,  like  a  dome,  both 
here  and  in  the  upper  chamber  of  the 
tower,  but  not  in  the  transepts  below,  as 
they  were,  for  instance,  in  the  domical 
vaulting  of  the  Old  Cathedral  of  Salamanca. 
The  bases  of  the  shafts  are  cusped ;  three  of 
the  capitals  are  historied  and  the  fourth 
uses  the  motive  of  the  pine  cone  (found  at 
Vezelay  and  at  the  Pantheon  of  S.  Isidore  at 
Leon),  very  rich:  in  late  Roman  mysticism, 
the  pine  cone  stood  for  immortality.  The 
tower  chamber,  just  referred  to,  which 
is  reached  through  this  room,  is  roofed 
with  a  sort  of  dome  on  squinches:  ajimez 
windows,  in  the  four  faces,  have  three 
capitals  apiece  but  the  shafts  have  perished 
and  the  openings  are  walled  up  where 
they  should  be.  These  capitals  anticipate 
Gothic,  like  one  at  the  door,  with  volutes 

somewhat 

as  at 
Cuenca 

“ topped 
with  a 
cypress 

cone  ’ ' 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

17  2 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Toulouse 

and 

Provence 

at  the  corners  and  a  strong  curl  below, 
sometimes  a  human  head. 

The  convent  was  founded  perhaps  in 
987  or  992  by  King  Sancho  of  Navarre 
and  his  wife,  Urraca  Fernandez,  who  left 
eighteen  villages  to  the  sorores  or  sisters 
of  S.  Cross.  The  great  benefactors  were 
however  the  family  of  Ramiro  I,  who  in 
1061  recommended  it  in  his  will  to  his 
daughter.  Urraca  was  professed  there  and 
so  between  1076  and  1096,  were  her  wid¬ 
owed  sisters,  Sancha,  Countess  of  Toulouse 
and  Teresa,  Countess  of  Provence.  The 
church  was  built  in  their  day,  the  transept 
vaults  belonging  to  a  reconstruction  not 
later  than  the  twelfth  century.  The  won¬ 
der  is,  on  the  whole,  that  Toulouse  and 
Provence  had  not  even  more  to  say  in  the 
matter;  but,  as  observed  already,  there  are 
as  many  reminiscences  of  northern  Au¬ 
vergne  ;  and  the  rest  are  apparently  of  the 
nearest  cathedral.  Briz  Martinez,4  writing 
the  history  of  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena,  speaks 
of  this  convent  as  a  daughter  house,  filled 
with  kings’  daughters  and  those  of  the  great 
nobles  and  principal  persons  of  the  realm, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

173 

and  adds  that  the  widowed  queens  passed 
their  lives  there.  By  a  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Toledo,  widowed  Gothic  queens 
might  not  marry  again,  and  they  either 
took  the  veil,  or  took  a  house  near  a  convent 
though  not  bound  to  the  community  life. 

In  the  poor  little  village  the  parish  church 
keeps  a  Romanesque  apse,  arcaded,  and 
one  house  an  ajimez  window  of  late  Gothic 
in  an  ogee  curve,  also  rude  sculptures  on 
the  lintel  of  eagles,  bells,  sunflowers,  and 
in  the  centre  a  cross.  About  contemporary 
with  this  house  is  a  treasure  that  the  nuns 
left  when  they  moved  into  town,  and  that 
still  graces  with  its  tarnished  golds  and 
faded  reds  the  deserted  church.  The 
Gothic  retable,  dated  1490,  shows  on  the 
left  side  the  Annunciation,  Epiphany,  and 
Ascension;  on  the  right  the  Nativity, 
Resurrection,  and  Pentecost;  in  the  centre, 
flanking  a  niche,  four  angels;  above,  Cal¬ 
vary  and  the  Dormition  of  the  B.  V.  M. 
In  the  Predella  a  soi-disant  Coronation  is 
really  a  scene  of  the  Spouse  embracing 
the  Beloved,  both  on  one  bench,  both 
crowned,  with  angels  making  music:  this 

.Wife  of 

one 

husband 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

174 

WAY  OF  S .  J A  M E  S 

The  road 

runs  up¬ 
hill 

is  followed  by  the  Presentation  of  the 
B.  V.  in  the  Temple,  and  on  the  other  side 
of  the  tabernacle,  by  the  Visitation  and 
Candlemas.  The  figures  of  the  Old  Cove¬ 
nant  wear  octagonal  haloes.  The  drawing 
everywhere  is  bad  and  the  scenes  quaint 
rather  than  powerful,  but  the  time-worn 
colour  is  pleasant  and  this  little  offshoot  of 
the  early  school  of  Aragon  would  grace  a 
gentleman’s  collection  and  doubtless  will. 

Beyond  S.  Cruz  the  path,  quitting  the 
walnuts  of  the  brook-side,  turns  up  across 
the  great  red  flank  of  the  Sierra,  where 
crumbling  soil  is  sparsely  overgrown  with 
aromatic  plants,  cistus  and  juniper  and 
the  wild  lavender.  The  lame  dog  raced 
ahead,  the  mules  followed  the  man,  and  the 

all  the 

way 

landscape  slowly  widened  to  northward 
over  the  white  levels  of  the  Aragon  until 
shoulder  above  shoulder  the  Pyrenean 
heights  heaved  up  and  snow-wreaths  pied 
their  grey.  Along  a  shelf  the  road  was 
following  a  gorge  and  was  constructed  of 
loose  stones,  any  size  from  a  man’s  fist  to  a 
man’s  torso.  Rocks  bigger  than  that,  the 
road-menders  had  cloven  into  two  or  three. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


Some  were  of  pink  marble,  others  of  grey 
and  purple,  and  the  ocherous  soil  was  beset 
with  flowers  of  Alpine  loveliness,  hawthorn 
and  wild  rose  and  many  unknown :  like  the 
rue-anemone,  but  pink;  like  the  cowslip, 
but  purple;  and  a  white  flattish  blossom 
that  persisted  very  high.  Going  up  thus 
among  the  hills  was  like  going  up  the  map : 
the  northern  plants  appeared,  and  we  came 
out  at  last,  on  the  crown,  through  thick 
pine  woods  into  what  might  have  been  a 
clearing  in  the  Adirondacks,  where  the 
pines  stood  more  openly  in  a  meadow 
of  tall  grass  starred  with  white  daisies. 
There  is  situated  the  new  convent,  red  as 
the  mountain  side,  of  little  interest,  the 
seventeenth -century  church  decently  kept 
with  a  Sunday  mass ;  the  range  of  conven¬ 
tional  buildings  reduced  to  a  single  dwelling 
habitable  for  the  caretakers,  shepherds, 
and  who  not.  We  were  urged  to  rest  and 
eat  or  drink.  One  asked,  by  mischance, 
for  the  single  thing  that  taxed  the  woman’s 
kindness,  a  drink  of  water.  Wine  they 
had  and  pressed  upon  us,  but  the  water 
had  been  fetched  from  far,  and  was  not 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


175 


■with  wild 
flowers 


and  grasses 


i  ?6 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

purple  iris 

fresh,  and  the  mistress  must  be  consulted 
before  the  maid  would  pour  a  drop.  In 
the  dark  cool  kitchen  we  watched  them 

and  pine 

preparing  the  family  dinner,  with  a  piece 
of  meat  as  big  as  your  palm.  The  mistress 
arriving  with  keys  and  water,  we  set  out 
for  another  mile,  rather  to  the  ill-content 
of  all  the  assistants,  to  find  the  ancient 
church.  Through  the  meadow  and  down  a 
green  valley  on  the  other  side  filled  with 
wild  iris  we  straggled,  and  feet  were  sud¬ 
denly  stayed  as,  across  the  tree-tops  and 
the  thick  brushwood,  we  saw  a  fringe  of 
pines  against  the  sky,  a  mighty  rock,  and 
a  little  clump  of  buildings  niched  under  it 
like  a  child’s  playhouse. 

One  Vico  went  hunting  the  deer  in  the 
great  forest,  it  is  said,  and  followed  hard 
upon  a  stag  till  it  went  over  the  cliff,  and 
the  horse,  reined  up,  hung  there  on  the  verge 
by  miraculous  intervention  till  the  prince 
could  throw  himself  off  and  crawl  down 
over  the  rough  jutting  face.  At  the  bot¬ 
tom  he  found  the  game  dead,  before  a 
cavern,  and  a  dead  hermit  within  wait¬ 
ing  for  burial,  his  name  written  beside 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

177 

him.  Vico  devoutly  thanked  the  good 
Baptist  who,  himself  acquainted  with  wil¬ 
dernesses,  had  stood  by  him  that  day,  and 

Bones  of 
martyrs 

after  burying  the  hermit  assumed  his  place. 
Abrother  joined  him,  and  to  them  came  from 
time  to  time  the  Christian  chieftains;  before 
them  was  made  a  league  and  a  covenant 
of  the  fellows  and  the  followers  of  Pedro 
Atares:  in  their  sanctuary  was  founded,  it 
may  be,  the  kingdom  of  Sobrarbe,  which 
was  to  bring  forth  the  kingdom  of  Aragon. 
What  Covadonga  is  in  the  west,  that  in  the 
east  is  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena,  and  the  vener¬ 
able  church  is  a  place  of  pilgrimage  still, 
sanctified  not  only  by  bones  of  martyrs, 

and  dust 

but  by  dust  of  kings. 

of  kings 

It  is  still,  in  spite  of  all,  homely  and 
lonely,  a  hermitage  and  no  more.  A 
mighty  abbey  rose,  and  fell  apart  again, 
and  the  shrine  under  the  rock  abides.  In 
the  entrance  court  the  tombs  of  powerful 
feudatories  were  adorned  seven  hundred 
years  ago  with  such  patterns,  of  panther 
and  griffin,  as  cheap  workmen  at  Jeypore 
enamel  in  brass  for  the  tourist  to-day. 
The  low  little  church,  without  aisles,  barrel- 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

178 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

La  Ptfia 

vaulted,  is  of  no  particular  style  or  age,  it 
is  mere  building,  no  more.  About  the 
twelfth-century  cloister,  which  disdains  a 
vault,  for  the  hugeous  rock  overhangs  it, 
are  set  the  chapels  that  devout  ages  have 
shapen;  one  of  lovely  late  Gothic,  the  arch 
cusped  within  and  crocketed  above; 
another  in  the  stately  beauty  of  the  late 
Renaissance,  with  column  and  cornice, 
pediment  and  orb;  and  the  cloister  itself 
barbarously  carven  with  Scripture  history 
after  a  fashion  strictly  its  own. 

S.  Juan  de  la  Pena  is  building  of  the  same 
sort  as  S.  Cruz,  modified  in  part,  first,  by 
survivals  of  the  earlier  hermitage,  secondly 
by  directly  oriental  motives,  thirdly  by 
its  remote  inaccessibility,  its  neighborhood 
to  Jaca,  and  the  presence  probably  of  a 
body  of  workmen  continuously  engaged 
about  the  great  abbey,  who  would  gradu¬ 
ally  create  a  style  of  their  own, — that  is  to 
say  by  a  chantier.  This  I  have  thought 
to  recognize  elsewhere,  sometimes.  It  re¬ 
mained  an  hermitage,  occupied  by  anchor¬ 
ites,  till  the  time  of  Sancho  Garces  I,  who 
organized  them  as  monks  cenobite,  with  an 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

S.  James  and  Pilgrim,  from  S.  Cernin,  Pamplona 


THE  WAY 

181 

abbot  under  the  rule  of  S.  Benedict. 5  At  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century  the  Abbot  Paterno, 
or,  according  to  some,  Garcia,  called  from 
France  by  Sancho  el  Mayor,  introduced 
the  discipline  of  Cluny;  the  monastery, 
however,  was  never  subject  to  Cluny,  and 
was  in  some  measure  under  the  authority 
of  the  Bishop.  When  Abbot  Garcia  died 
the  king  called  a  Mozarabic  hermit,  S. 
Inigo,6  from  his  cave  in  the  mountains  of 
Jaca.  The  dignity  of  the  abbot  began 
humbly,  but  came  to  be  magistral,  or 
equal  to  episcopal,  and  could  once  compete 
with  the  greatest  in  Spain.  He  was  a  great 
lord  not  only  in  the  church  but  in  the  king¬ 
dom.  Sixty-five  monasteries  depended  on 
his,  and  these  not  only  priories  but  lesser 
abbeys  as  well.  There  were  likewise  num¬ 
bered  a  hundred  and  twenty-six  secular 
churches,  among  them  S.  Pedro  la  Rua  of 
Estella,  of  which  the  prior  was  a  professed 
monk  of  S.  Juan. 

The  tombs  in  the  atrium,  while  mostly 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  have  among  them 
dates  like  1089,  1091,  1123.  In  the  cloister, 
one  dated  983  can  hardly  be  original :  here 

The 

history 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

I 

182 


Second 

century 

steles 


Delphi, 

Oms, 

Jerusalem, 
and  Mecca 


WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 


The  most  curious  among  the  remains 
are  the  funeral  steles,  carved  with  crescent, 
rosette  and  helix,  Syrian  emblems  all,  and 
likewise  with  horse-shoe  arches. s  Most  of 
these  are  in  Leon  museum  still,  some  at 
Madrid.  Dr.  Holland6  suggests  that  the 
carvings  of  the  steles  have  talismanic  value 
and  a  Mithraic  allusion;  something  very 
like,  but  without  the  horse-shoe  curves, 
appears  manifestly  on  Coptic  tombstones 
of  a  later  age  at  Cairo.7  Certainly  they 
represent  a  stream  of  oriental  thought  and 
feeling,  perhaps  of  practice  and  worship, 
that  flowed  into  Spain,  probably  from 
Syria. 

Legio  VII  Gemina,  like  Crusaders, 
brought  back  from  service  abroad  tags  of 
Eastern  lore,  older  superstitions  and  newer 
divinities.  So,  we  learned  that  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  enshrined  such  another  Black 
Stone  as  Emessa  and  Mecca,  which  pil¬ 
grims,  worshipping,  touched  through  the 
interstices  of  such  a  net  as  covered  the  Om¬ 
phalos  at  Delphi.  What  happens,  Kipling 
describes,  and  his  testimony  is  good  be- 
causehe  is  notexplaining  antiquity  but, like 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  WAY 

183 

antiquity,  bent  on  business  of  the  empire. 

And  man  on  man  got  talking 

Religion  and  the  rest, 

And  every  man  comparing 

Of  the  gods  he  knew  the  best  .  .  . 
Till  we’d  all  ride  home  to  bed 

With  Mohammed,  God  and  Shiva 
Changing  pickets  in  our  head.8 

This  question  of  the  infiltration  of 
Syrian  and  other  cults  from  Asia  Minor 

Syrian 

and  the  lands  east  of  the  Mediterranean, 

cults 

the  amount  and  the  kind,  is  as  important 
as  that  of  the  architecture,  though  not 
identical.  It  will  reappear  further  along 
the  Way;  meanwhile  a  note  may  be  added 
that  one  possible  remnant  of  the  worship 
of  Mithras  survived  at  Leon  in  a  very 
ancient  use.  “  Mithras  was  always  the  god 

Mithras 

invoked  as  the  guarantor  of  faith  and 
protector  of  the  inviolability  of  contracts,  ” 
says  Cumont. 9  Now  Quadrado  mentions10 
that  upon  the  ark  or  shrine  of  S.  Isidore 
oaths  were  taken  in  both  civil  and  criminal 
causes,  in  full  assurance  that  the  perjurer 
would  die  within  the  year,  and  accepted  by 
the  courts,  until  the  Catholic  Kings  stopped 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

i84 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Capitals 

and  Adam  and  Eve.  These  corners,  with 
four  shafts  clustered  against  the  outer 
faces  of  a  pier,  are  very  fine;  of  the  rest, 
the  shafts  are  sometimes  double,  some¬ 
times  single,  under  a  large  capital.  The 
history  goes  on : 

2.  The  serpent  tempting,  Adam  and 
Eve  abashed,  God  rebuking  them.  Adam 
ploughs  with  two  horses,  like  the  men 
on  the  mountain  below,  while  Eve  spins. 
The  sacrifice  of  Cain  and  Abel. 

3.  The  Annunciation,  Visitation,  Na¬ 
tivity,  Announcement  to  the  Shepherds. 

4.  Angelic  warning  to  Joseph  in 
slumber.  Flight  into  Egypt.  Joseph 
carries  scrip  and  cloak  over  his  shoulder, 
people  look  out  above  an  arched  gate¬ 
way  not  in  the  form  of  a  horseshoe  but 
one  very  familiar  throughout  Spain,  in 
which  the  abacus  projects  and  the 
circular  arch  is  set  back  as  far  as  the 
line  of  the  jambs  below. 

5.  Epiphany;  the  Three  Kings;  Her¬ 
od’s  soldiers;  doctors  pointing  out  places 
on  the  scroll  they  are  consulting. 

6.  Ruined:  there  was  a  castle  with  a 
king  sitting  in  it:  probably  the  Massacre 
of  the  Innocents. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

185 

7.  Two  kings: — for  the  rest,  ruinous. 

8.  The  Three  Kings  riding  away. 

9.  Presentation. 

10.  Temptation.  —  - 

XI  arid  corner:  Two  scenes  of  boats; 
Christ  walking  on  the  water. 

The  next,  the  north  side,  bears  on  the 

corner: 

1.  The  Miracle  of  Cana. 

2.  Christ  and  his  disciples  with 
staves,  in  talk,  Mary  entreating  them. 

3.  The  raising  of  Lazarus  and  the 
feast  in  the  house  of  Simon. 

4.  Entry  into  Jerusalem,  with  the 
foal  of  the  ass,  Zacchaeus  in  the  tree, 
and  the  gate  of  Salem. 

5.  The  Last  Supper,  Washing  of  feet. 

6.  Betrayal :  the  Jews  in  high  caps. 

Then  a  corner,  quite  different:  four 

saintly  figures  within  scroll  work,  and 
on  the  other  face,  Christ  in  a  mandorla 
between  four  angels  with  scrolls,  whose 
wings  meet  and  form  the  edge.  Of 
course  restorers  have  been  here,  but  they 
were  restricted.  One  may  conjecture 
that  the  Old  Testament  series  once  filled 
one  of  the  sides  now  destroyed,  and  the 

Wayfaring 

theme 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

1 86 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Character¬ 

istics 

Death  and  Resurrection  of  Christ,  with 
possibly  a  suggestion  of  the  Last  Judg 
ment,  the  other. 

The  work  is  curious,  excessively  barbar¬ 
ous,  and  quite  individual.  I  am  tempted  to 
associate  it  with  the  more  archaic  portions 
of  the  other  great  work  at  Estella,  the 
portico  of  S.  Miguel,  but  only  after  a  long 
interval.  Here  at  S.  Juan  the  modelling  is 
done  at  times  with  little  more  than  incised 
lines;  the  hands  as  well  as  the  heads  are  too 
large  for  the  figure,  hair  and  beard  are 
indicated  by  curving  parallel  lines.  The 
high  cheekbone  is  emphasized  by  a  special 
line,  and  the  eyes,  in  Scriptural  phrase, 
“bung  out,”  the  socket  deeply  hollowed 
and  the  eyelid  and  pupil  carefully  worked 
on  the  bulging  feature.  In  spite  of  all 
this,  the  scenes  have  not  only  dignity  but 
feeling. 

These,  it  is  tempting  to  associate  with 
the  early  Lombard  sculptures,  at  Cremona 
and  elsewhere. 7  There  is  likeness  to  the 
Ferrara  figures  on  the  door  jambs,  where 
Master  Nicholas  worked.  It  would  be 
possible,  of  course,  that  the  messengers 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

187 

constantly  going  and  coming  between  this 
powerful  monastery  and  Rome,  should  have 
fetched  a  master  workman  as  they  returned 
through  Lombardy.  The  relation  was  close. 
In  the  great  struggle  to  suppress  the  Moz- 
arabic  use,  that  is  to  say  the  Hispanic,  S. 
Juan  played  a  great  part.  “The  Roman 
use  was  introduced  into  Spain,”  says 
Sandoval, 8  “from  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena,  in 
March  on  S.  Benedict’s  Day,  era  1071 
[that  is,  1033  a.d.],  the  Roman  legate 
fixing  himself  there.”  It  is,  indeed,  more 
likely,  on  the  whole,  that  the  model  should 
have  come  from  Italy  than  that  the  lonely 
mountain  abbey,  where  all  the  architecture, 
while  sound  and  strong,  is  of  the  simplest 
and  of  the  region,  should  have  supplied 
masters  to  Lombardy  and  the  Emilia.  A 
chantier  once  established — and  we  have  the 
opinion  of  Sr.  Larnperez  that  the  convent 
and  its  dependencies  were  building  steadily 
from  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  to  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century — the  style 
would  develop  with  little  modification 
other  than  refinement  and  growing  power 
to  express  beauty  on  the  one  hand,  and  a 

n 

of  the 
chantier 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

1 88 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Silos 

constant  approach  to  nature  on  the  other. 
We  may,  provisionally,  discuss  this  style 
as  if  it  commenced  where  we  find  it  first, 
at  S.  Juan. 

The  two  capitals  compared  with  those  of 
S.  Domingo  de  Silos  must  be  treated  apart. 
They  are  probably  from  another  and  a 
later  cloister,  the  sole  remains  of  it.  The 
work  is  ruder  and  less  lovely  than  that  at 
Silos:  for  instance  the  locks  of  hair  curled 
at  the  tip  on  the  griffins’  back  are  more 
summary,  less  oriental  and  exquisite  than 
the  lions’  manes  at  Silos.  There  is  a 
capital  at  S.  Eutropius  of  Saintes,  of  birds 
pecking  at  monsters,  which,  though  with¬ 
out  enlrelacs,  is  identical  in  the  forms  of  the 
birds,  and  uses  precisely  the  same  detail  to 
express  respectively  the  long  quills  of  the 
wing  and  the  short  feathers  of  the  body 
and  tail.  The  capitals  of  Aulnay  are  of 
the  same  sort:  now  the  church  of  Aulnay 
(1135)  lay  on  the  pilgrim  Road  and  S.  Eu¬ 
tropius  of  Saintes  (consecrated  1096)  was 
one  of  the  great  shrines  for  veneration. 

These  capitals  could  have  been,  at  best, 
oriental  only  at  second  or  third  remove, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

189 

but  the  tombs  of  the  ricos-ombres  in  the 
outer  court  have  devices  directly  borrowed 
from  the  East.  The  tombs  are  mere  semi¬ 
circular  pigeonholes  in  the  bounding  wall, 
hollowed  to  hold  a  few  bones  or  a  handful 

of  dust ;  the  arch  of  the  upper  range  deco¬ 
rated  with  a  chequer  or  billet,  that  of  the 
lower  with  the  hollow  and  ball  that  ap¬ 
peared  at  S.  Cruz.  Within  this  lunette  a 
central  disc  is  adorned  with  arms,  or  an 

oriental 

elaborate  cross,  the  chrism,  a  griffin  en¬ 
closed  by  a  twist,  a  lion  or  panther  in  a 
border  decorated  with  eight  spindles:  these 
came  directly  from  the  East,  and  the  daisy 
dropped  at  S.  Cruz  came  with  them. 

Here,  then,  in  and  near  Jaca,  we  have  a 
strong  Romanesque  style  of  building  that 
appears  as  nearly  as  possible  autocthonous, 
and  a  type  of  decoration  that  goes  with  it, 
developed  in  part,  probably,  from  the 
Roman  and,  in  part  at  least,  drawn  from 
the  general  stock-in-trade  of  Romanesque 

and 

builders.  In  Jaca  cathedral  there  is  little 
else.  At  S.  Cruz  there  is  a  hint  of  French 
masonry  and  an  Eastern  decorative  motive. 
At  S.  Juan,  superimposed  upon  the  Spanish 

regional 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

190 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

French 

building  and  possibly  later  than  the 
Eastern  trinkets,  persist  the  remnants, 
scanty  but  sufficient,  of  work  done  in  the 
manner  of  Aulnay  and  Saintes.  I  should 

Italian 

add  that  the  carving  of  the  abaci  through¬ 
out  the  cloister  has  the  direct  and  vigorous 
forms  ot  the  French  work  cited,  and  not 
the  more  flowing  and  luxurious  grace  of 
those  at  S.  Domingo.  Finally,  something 
Italian-seeming  must  be  admitted. 

Returning 

The  good  woman  jingled  her  keys,  the 
guide  expected  us  to  remember  that  he 
had  not  breakfasted;  we  left  the  ancient 
walls,  where  decay  has  been  just  decently 
arrested,  to  their  proper  quietude  and, 
recrossing  the  brook  and  climbing  again 
the  steep  path  through  thickets,  sat  down 
in  the  convent  orchard  to  eat  the  luncheon 
we  had  fetched  and  go  to  sleep,  face  down 
in  the  grass,  thereafter. 

When  we  awoke  it  was  not  much  past 
noon,  a  storm-cloud  was  pouring  over 
the  farther  mountain  range,  and  the  guide 
consented  to  start  for  home  instead  of 

waiting,  as  stipulated,  till  tour  o’clock. 
The  kindness  nearly  cost  him  an  apoplexy. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

191 

The  heat  was  superb.  There  is  no  other 
word  for  that  air  of  the  Spanish  noontide 
which  is  like  brandy  in  your  blood:  dry, 

white,  thrice  distilled,  you  draw  it  in  like 
a  perfume,  you  absorb  it  like  an  intoxi¬ 
cant. 

The  mules,  after  their  kind,  walked 
among  rolling  stones  on  the  extreme  outer 

the  tides 
of  the  day 

edge  of  the  mountain  side;  the  tree-tops 

danced  below.  The  Pyrenees  were  vapor¬ 
ous.  The  intervening  air  boiled  as  above 
hot  metal.  The  lame  dog  who  looked 
like  a  wolf  raced  ahead,  dug  himself  a  cave 
under  the  shady  side  of  some  brow  or  knoll 
of  clay  and  lay  in  the  cooler  redder  earth 
till  we  had  gone  well  past,  then  dashed 
ahead  again.  After  we  repassed  S.  Cruz 
we  found  the  horses  again  stepping  and 
stumbling  down  the  brook,  each  with  a 
log  banging  at  his  heels:  noonday  rest 
was  over.  By  the  grange  men  were  piling 
logs  again:  we  drove  back  to  Jaca  in  the 
dust  that  choked  like  soot  and  arrived  in 

changed 

time  for  tea  and  a  long  sleep  before  the 
long  dinner  and  the  walk  thereafter  to  a 
bit  of  park  along  the  water-side. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

192 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Vive  con 
noble 

osad'ia  .  .  . 

Alfonso  el  Batallador. 

While  kings  of  eternal  evil 

Yet  darken  the  hills  about, 

Thy  part  is,  with  broken  sabre, 
To  rise  on  the  last  redoubt; 

To  fear  not  sensible  failure, 
Nor  covert  the  game  at  all, 

But  fighting,  fighting,  fighting, 
Die,  driven  against  the  wall ! 

Garcia  Iniguez  was  ruling  his  kingdom 
of  Sobrarbe  when  he  took  Pampeluna  from 
the  infidel.  The  county  of  Aragon  lay 
between  the  two  streams  called  by  that 
name;  one  comes  down  from  Canfranc 
and  the  Pyrenees,  and  runs  on  one  side  of 
Jaca;  the  other  comes  down  from  the  Port 
of  Hecha.  The  first  count,  D.  Aznar,  of 
great  lineage,  was  serving  under  D.  Garcia 
at  the  siege  of  Pampeluna  and  was  sent 
by  him  with  some  companies  of  men  of  that 
country  to  the  city  of  Jaca.  The  Moors 
were  not  expecting  attack  and  it  fell  as 
soon  as  Pampeluna,  in  the  year  759. 
Others  say  that  he  came  in  from  France 
with  his  vassals  and  took  it,  and  then 
Garcia,  pleased  with  his  valour  and  nobil- 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

193 

ity,  gave  him  the  title  of  Count  of  Aragon. 
Jaca  is  a  city  on  the  slope  of  the  Pyrenees, 

Jaca 

ancient 

in  antiquity  inferior  to  none  in  Spain. 

It  was  muy  venlurosa,  more  than  any  other 

and 

in  Spain.  As  it  was  the  port  and  entry  of 
France,  the  next  year  four  kings  and  an 
immense  army  came  up  from  Navarre  and 
Sangiiesa  to  retake  it.  Thanks  to  the 
women,  they  did  not.  The  fuero  of  Jaca 
was  probably  given  by  Gelindo  Aznar,  the 
second  count  of  Aragon:  so  given,  because 
the  Goths  had  prohibited  the  imperial  (i.e., 
the  Roman)  code.  Sancho  Ramirez  in 
1073  did  not  change  this  in  any  wise:  he 
kept  the  Gothic  code,  he  did  not  impose 
the  imperial:  he  owned  no  lord  in  the 
world  but  the  Roman  pontiff.  That  last 
clause  will  bear  discounting  —  it  was 

muy  venlu- 

written  by  an  ecclesiastic  in  the  seven- 

rosa 

teenth  century.1  Actually,  belike,  the 
Roman  pontiff  got  what  was  left  after  the 
Lion’s  share  had  been  measured. 

Alfonso  Sanchez,  his  son,  the  second 
Alfonso,  who  was  to  be  known  as  el  Batalla- 
dor,  the  lord  of  battles,  was  born  at  Hecha, 
in  the  mountains.  There  the  lords  of 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

194 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Happy 
Warrior 

Aragon  held  always  royal  hunting  lodges, 
and  kings  had  their  sons  brought  up  there 
because  the  cold  clear  air,  on  the  very 
peak  of  the  Pyrenees,  made  them  strong, 
robust,  and  soldierly.  At  the  age  of  seven 
years,  or  possibly  of  ten,  he  was  put  in 
charge  of  a  monk  at  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena; 
the  abbot  named  for  his  tutor  D.  Galindo  de 

.  .  .  parte 

muy 

pri  nci  pal 

Arbas,  prior  of  S.  Salvador  de  Puyo,  who 
took  Alfonso  with  him  and  taught  him 
grammar  and  the  other  humanities.  This 
the  king  recalls  in  a  privilege  dated  1108. 
He  was  to  be,  always,  a  great  gentleman 
and  a  great  soldier.  He  was  crowned  at 
Huesca,  and  on  the  same  day  a  Grand 
Rabbi  of  the  Jews  there,  was  converted 
and  baptised,  the  king  standing  god¬ 
father;  in  1106  he  stood  godfather  to  a 
greater  convert,  that  Petrus  Alfonsus  who 
composed  the  Disciplina  Clericalis. 

As  his  name  reveals,  he  was  bom  to  be 
the  Happy  Warrior.  Mariana  calls  him  a 
great  captain  in  soul,  of  valour  and  forti¬ 
tude  unparalleled,  the  glory  and  honour 
of  Spain.  He  shared  all  his  winnings  with 
God;  he  was  generous,  pious  after  his  kind, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


and  strong  as  his  Pyrenean  rocks.  To  the 
brother  whom  he  succeeded,  and  to  the 
brother  who  succeeded  him,  he  was  staunch 
and  generous,  giving  all  the  service  that 
they  asked:  fortunately,  this  lay  in  the  line 
of  right  conduct,  and  their  careers,  if  not 
unshadowed  by  personal  grief  and  regret, 
by  too  early  death,  and  a  vocation  re¬ 
nounced,  yet  never  ran  counter  to  the 
glory  of  religion  and  of  Spain.  To  hold 
up  Spain  with  a  strong  clasp,  and  to  put 
the  fear  of  God  into  the  Moors,  was  D. 
Alfonso’s  concern:  God  gave  power  to  his 
arm,  and  strength  to  his  party.  In  the 
unhappy  matter  of  his  marriage  with  Doha 
Urraca,  he  seems  to  have  acted  like  a 
gentleman  and  a  king,  never  letting  per¬ 
sonal  relations  override  political.  The 
heiress  of  Galicia,  Leon,  and  Castile,  part¬ 
ly  in  her  own  right,  partly  in  transmit¬ 
ting  that  right  to  an  infant  son,  Doha 
Urraca  had  the  same  virile  strength  as 
Queen  Blanche  and  Queen  Berengaria  in 
the  next  century;  but  she  had  not  their 
austerities.  Since  she  allowed  herself  the 
same  liberties  as  a  man,  it  is  small  wonder 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


195 


de  las 
glorias  de 
Espaha  .  . 


so,  F16rez 


I 


196 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Arch¬ 

bishop 

Roderick 

that  her  husband  treated  her  with  the  same 
directness  as  a  man.  In  the  west  her 
matrimonial  difficulties  were  made  the 
excuse  for  faction  and  rebellion:  in  the 
east,  his  matrimonial  connexions  gave  a 
good  ground  for  conquest  and  annexation. 
In  the  Historia  Compostellana  D.  Alfonso 
is  painted  with  horns  and  hoofs;  in  the 
Chronicle  of  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena,  Dona 
Urraca  is  a  scarlet  woman. 

Roderick  of  Toledo,  who  must  have 
known  some  who  had  known  him,  has  only 
good  to  say,  calling  him  in  the  Chronicle 
in  Romance  “a  very  Catholic  prince,  a 
constant  benefactor  of  the  religious,  who 
lived  always  in  a  fervid  zeal  to  increase 
the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  and  continue  war 
against  the  infidel.”  No  other  king  of  Spain 
had  conquered  so  many  lands  from  the 
Moors,  nor  entered  so  many  times  in  battle 
with  them,  and  always  triumphed.  He  took 
Valencia;  he  took  Saragossa,  esteemed  im¬ 
pregnable  since  Charlemagne’s  vain  exploit 
and  tragical  retreat.  His  brilliant  raid  into 
the  south  did,  probably,  all  that  he  expected 
and  more.  We  know,  through  the  re- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

T  H  E  W  A  Y 


luctant  admissions  of  Ibn-aj-Cairafi  of 
Granada,  how  the  Christians  called  him. 
down  with  the  offer  of  twelve  thousand 
warriors  to  help  him,  and  among  their 
names  not  one  a  boy’s  or  an  old  man’s. 2 
Coming  in  September  of  1125,  he  spent  a 
year  and  six  months  harrying  the  fairest 
lands  of  the  Hagarenes,  along  the  east 
coast  and  throughout  the  south.  His 
expedition  supplied  a  kind  of  counterpart, 
a  revanche,  for  that  of  Almanzor,  in  the 
north,  a  century  and  a  half  before. 

Queen  Urraca  had  just  died,  in  childing 
of  a  bastard,  say  some  chroniclers,  but  she 
was  to  have  her  revenge  of  the  husband  she 
had  so  hated.  It  may  be  that  the  poison 
she  brewed  for  him  had  done  some  work, 
had  touched  some  cell  in  the  brain  or 
twisted  some  fibre.  A  curious  unexplained 
incident  recorded  near  Malaga  is  just 
tinged  with  the  fantasticality  that  passes 
over  into  fatality.  “He  had  a  little  boat 
built,”  says  the  Arab,  “and  caught  fish 
which  he  ate.”  It  seems  to  come  straight 
out  of  the  Third  Calendar’s  tale  in  the 
Arabian  Nights.  Was  it  done  for  a  vow, 


197 


The  Arabs 


Fatality 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


198 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Roman 
galleys 
on  coins 
already 

or,  as  his  enemy  prompts,  to  be  talked  of 
afterwards?  His  wit  and  judgement  had  not 
failed:  when  they  were  passing  the  defiles 
of  the  river  Salobrena  he  glanced  up  at 
the  cliffs  and  said  to  one  of  his  knights  (a 
sheik  of  the  country  heard  and  reported): 
“What  a  tomb,  if  anyone  above  threw 
down  sand  on  us! ” 

After  conquering  Saragossa,  Tarragona, 
Calatayud,  and  Daroca,  and  generally 
speaking  all  beyond  Ebro,  he  turned  to¬ 
ward  the  confines  of  Catalonia.  He  took 
Alcobia  and  laid  siege  to  Lerida,  coming 
down  the  Ebro  in  galleys:  for  the  Ebro 
used  to  be  navigable,  in  Vespasian’s  day 
boats  went  as  far  as  to  Logrono;  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  they  could  still  get  up 
to  Pampeluna.  Lerida  did  not  fall,  and 
he  threw  himself  into  Mequineza;  then  in 
August  of  1133,  leaving  that  high-towered 
castle  in  good  hands,  he  came  out  and 
attacked  Fraga.  Winter  came,  with  great 
cold  and  excessive  rain:  he  had  to  send 
the  army  home,  every  man  to  winter  in  his 
own  house.  Again  he  tried  the  siege  in 
February  and  in  April.  Then  Valencia 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

199 

was  lost.  Battle  was  joined  on  July  17th, 
and  the  king  was  killed.  The  Black  Book 
of  Santiago  says,  under  the  feast  of  SS. 
Justa  and  Rufina:  “Era  1172  fuit  inter- 
fectio  Christianorum  in  Fraga.”  Com- 
postella  would  be  glad,  for  Galicia  had,  on 
the  whole,  backed  Urraca,  or  at  any  rate 
regarded  the  recurrent  difficulties  with  her 
like  quarrels  in  the  family.  The  great 
archbishop,  out  there,  was  dying  like  an 
old  lion  among  jackals:  the  news  must 
have  struck  on  his  heart.  “But  indeed,” 
old  Briz  Martinez  says,3  “when  he  died  it 
was  as  when  a  tree  falls,  any  man  can  hack 
at  it,  however  once  prized.”  He  had  lived 
too  long,  and  his  star  had  over-watched 
the  ascendant  by  an  hour.  That  is  the  life 
of  many  men;  perhaps,  if  truth  were  known, 
of  all  except  the  early  dead.  The  wheel  of 
fortune  that  turns  so  slowly  and  never 
stops  turning,  that  brings  a  man  to  the 
topmost  pitch,  will  swing  him  down  again 
unless  Death  cuts  him  loose.  The  Happy 
Warrior  is  he  full-armed  and  dead  in 
the  morning  of  battle.  Men  never  found 
Alfonso’s  body,  or  his  royal  arms  or  a  sure 

When  D. 

Alfonso 

died 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

200 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Coronica 
General 
cap.  966, 
f.  261  V. 
Some  say 
he  lived  on 
as  pilgrim 

sign  of  him:  and  there  is  another  story  of 
his  end  which  belongs  to  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena. 

Hither  at  the  last,  in  September  weather, 
had  come  cl  Batallador  from  the  defeat 
at  Fraga,  to  die.  He  had  conquered  Sara¬ 
gossa  and  Tudela  and  Bayonne,  he  had 
helped  the  Cid  at  Valencia;  for  thirty  years 
he  had  been  winning,  and  had  taken  many 
cities,  and  now  the  tide  had  turned.  He 
got  off  his  horse  and  went  to  his  bed.  On 
the  morning  of  the  seventh  he  bade  close 
all  the  doors  of  the  monastery,  and  so  he 
died.  What  was  the  thought  in  all  that 
bolting  and  barring  before  the  end?  Not 
against  powers  of  this  world,  one  fancies, 
but  against  elemental,  and  the  powers  of 
the  rock  and  the  air,  and  the  prince  of  the 
powers  of  the  air.  Or  was  it  the  desperate 
determination  not  to  die,  to  imprison  still 
the  escaping  soul,  and  catch  and  cage  it 
yet?  By  his  will  the  kingdom  was  to  be 
shared  among  ghostly  warriors  who  were 
trained  men-of-arms,  knightly  monks,  who 
could  count  on  having  God  behind  them, 
the  Order  of  the  Temple,  of  S.  John  of  Jeru¬ 
salem,  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

201 

So  passed  the  grand  fighter,  but  the 
memory  of  him  stirs  and  wakes  at  times 
in  Spain.  Of  such  great  figures  of  the 

Shadows 

Middle  Age  as  this  Alfonso,  and  Dona 
Urraca  his  spouse,  Ferdinand  the  Saint, 
and  Diego  Gelmirez  the  prelate  who  so 
nearly  was  another  pope,  I  can  evoke  only 
a  cloudy  and  fleeting  image,  a  flitting  shape, 
a  shadow  on  running  water.  But  of  their 
presence  is  ever  aware  the  pilgrim  in  Spain. 
There  is  an  ancient  legend,  told  in  many 

of  smoke 

lands,  of  a  traveller  falling  asleep  in  a 
plain  or  a  valley  or  on  a  hillside  where 
once  was  fought  a  battle :  how  in  the  night 
under  the  sailing  moon  he  hears  faint 
tramplings,  the  neighing  of  horses  and 
trumpets  blown,  steel  clanging,  and  heavy 
bodies  falling,  or  he  sees  at  such  times  the 

on  running 

pale  wraiths  clash  and  strive  and  lose  at 
the  last  all  soundlessly.  And  when  the 
sun  is  up  again,  the  dew  hangs  strung  on 
gossamers,  in  her  quivering  spires  the  lark 
trills,  the  tall  seeded  grasses  wave  in  the 
freshening  wind,  yet  unfallen. 

water 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

202 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

III 

THE  BATHS  OF  TIERMAS 

D’ailleurs,  voyage  t'on 
en  Espagne  ?  Au  fond  on 
y  fait  plulot  des  pelerin- 
ages.  —  G6mez  Carrillo. 

At  Jaca  we  watched  the  young  nobility 
of  Spain  training  boy  scouts:  we  paced 
the  grey  flagged  streets  between  the  grey 
stone  houses:  we  sat  in  the  cathedral,  early 
and  late,  but,  though  cool  and  grey,  it  is  not 
so  good  as  some  for  sitting  in.  The  Coro 
takes  up  too  much  room.  All  the  cen¬ 
turies  have  bedecked  and  bedraped  it,  not 
so  ill  neither,  and  it  is  a  comely,  friendly, 
experienced  place,  not  moving  or  edifying. 
At  the  last  we  climbed  a  ladder  and  sat 
down  on  the  top  of  another  yellow  motor- 
omnibus  bound  for  Tiermas. 

The  road,  tree-planted,  follows  the  river 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


203 


westward,  all  the  way.  The  cities  sit  up 
on  hills;  you  see  them  from  far,  and  pass 
them,  and  see  them  far.  Berdtin,  which  is 
one  of  these,  boasts  a  great  church  dedi¬ 
cated  to  S.  Eulalia,  but  Aymery  Picaud 
knows  nothing  of  it,  nor  do  I.  The  wide 
white  plain  is  bounded  by  blue  mountains 
that  hardly  change;  the  vast  blue  sky  is 
strewn  with  white  piles  of  cloud  that  sail 
and  sail;  the  car  climbs  hills  at  full  speed 
and  swings  around  curves  like  a  boy’s 
sling,  and  you  know7  that  if  it  skidded  you 
would  be  slung  into  the  next  kingdom  like  a 
boy’s  stone.  When  a  shower  passed  over 
we  pulled  a  rug  over  our  two  heads:  the  car 
sped  through  it  and  into  blue  again.  In 
one  place  an  old  man  in  a  wide  hat  was 
raking  up  and  turning  in  the  sun  a  square 
yard  of  daisy  heads,  curing  them  for  I 
know  not  what  tisane.  Elsewhere  two 
old  men  went  down  a  road  dangling  empty 
wTine  flasks,  their  white  shirt  sleeves,  their 
alpargatas  and  white  socks  and  long  black 
stockings,  their  broad  black  sashes  and 
velvet  vests,  the  dress  of  Aragon.  The 
Sierra  on  the  south  approached,  the  river 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 


Set  on  a 
hill 


204 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

thermae 

bed  on  the  north  widened ;  its  sandy  banks 
between  the  shallow  pools  were  not  more 
arid  than  the  land  on  either  side,  just 
diversified  with  purple  pebbly  rock  and 
grey  aromatic  shrubs,  rosemary,  juniper 
and  cistus.  The  great  back  of  a  hill  lifted 
a  few  grey  houses  against  the  windy  blue, 
and  around  the  curve  of  it  we  drew  up  at 
the  Baths  of  Tiermas. 

These  thermae  the  Romans  knew,  and 
bequeathed  a  name  and  an  old  red 
porphyry  tank,  no  more.  The  charm  of 
Tiermas  is  older  than  they,  is  old  as  the 
elements.  The  landscape  is  like  that  of 
the  Sistine  Creation  of  Adam,  but  the 
ringing  sky  and  the  clear  wind  are  older 
even  than  the  rocks  and  marl,  are  ageless 
and  immortal. 

It  is  hard  to  tell  another  what  we  found 
in  Tiermas  to  like  it  so.  Not,  surely,  the 
sulphuretted  hydrogen  of  the  waters,  which 
flavoured  the  drinking  and  the  cooking. 
The  very  pillows  and  table-napkins  tasted 
thereof.  The  inn  at  Jaca  had  been  excel¬ 
lent  after  its  kind,  and  that  a  kind  which 
while  entirely  Peninsular  was  for  goodness 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

205 

almost  European:  we  liked  it  well  enough. 
I  dare  say  if  we  had  stayed,  in  Tiermas,  at 
the  new  large  hotel  across  the  tiny  square, 
we  should  have  been  merely  bored  and 
impatient  with  the  wide  shady  hall  and 
wicker  furniture,  with  the  private  chapel 
for  the  convenience  of  priests  stopping 
at  the  house,  and  the  upper  gallery,  yet 
more  private,  therein,  for  the  reserve  of 
great  ladies;  with  the  airy  dining  room  and 
its  conventional  little  tables  and  conven¬ 
tional  long  meals.  But  after  reading  the 
tariff  painted  up  on  a  board  in  plain  view 
we  crossed  over  to  the  Old  Inn.  They 
took  us  up,  past  the  steaming  stone  tanks 
of  the  basement  where  you  sat  to  soak  in 
the  very  troughs  of  a  thousand  years  ago, 
down  long  whitewashed  corridors  that  re¬ 
called  the  Springs  of  the  last  century  in 
Virginia,  into  a  pair  of  huge  bare  rooms, 
scrubbed  and  empty  and  airy.  You  saw 
outside  the  windows  a  clean  sky  piled  with 
white  clouds,  and  the  vast  heave  of  a  hill 
where  a  thread  of  road  crept  and  wound 
and  men  and  donkeys  crawled  up  at 
nightfall  to  the  ancient  town  and  trotted 

The  Old 

Inn 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

206 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Why  we 
liked  it 

down  in  the  early  day ;  and  all  night  a  few 
lights  pricked  through  there  like  low- 
swung  stars;  and  you  heard  a  tree  below 
in  a  courtyard,  rustling  softly. 

We  ate  plain  meals,  but  well -tasting,  at 
a  long  table  with  casual  men  travelling, 
like  ourselves,  modestly;  and  with  the 
housekeeper  and  the  bookkeeper,  who,  not 
thinking  themselves  too  good  to  sit  down 
there,  maintained  decorum  and  interest 
in  the  talk.  Provision  was  made,  in  the 
explicit  tariff  posted  in  every  room,  for 
travellers  yet  more  modest,  who  brought 
their  own  provisions  and  had  the  use  of  a 
kitchen  granted.  The  card  also  enumer¬ 
ated  the  meals  to  which  pension  entitled 
one:  a  good  early  breakfast,  or,  if  one  was 
not  used  to  that,  then  a  substantial  meri- 
enda  (in  American,  “snack”)  at  ten  o’clock; 
almuerzo,  as  big  as  a  dinner,  at  one;  at  five 
chocolate  with  azucarillos  and  a  glass  of 
water;  dinner  about  nine;  and  I  believe  a 
snack  at  bed-time,  which  occurred  some¬ 
where  after  midnight,  but  we  never  waited 
up  for  it.  It  could  not  have  been  the 
friendly  insistence  on  chocolate  the  instant 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


|  of  our  arrival,  the  cold  water  and  the 
azucarillos.  so  delicious  when  we  were 
dusty  and  faint.  Perhaps  it  was  the 
space  within  doors  and  without,  that  we 
so  loved,  or  the  wind  that  blew  out  of  the 
clean  spaces  of  the  sky.  There  never  was 
anything  like  this  wind,  not  even  that 
which  blows  on  a  hot  day  after  strong  rain. 

There  we  rested:  I  remember  that  I  read  | 
the  whole  of  The  Golden  Ass  in  old  Ed-j 
wardes’s  version,  where  the  quaintness  I 
decently  disguises  the  indecency,  in  the! 
long  afternoons,  in  the  big  silent  room,  j 
We  sat  on  the  sun-warmed  rocks  by  the 
roadside  in  cool  twilights  that  evoked  all 
the  aromatic  scents,  making  friends  with  a 
pair  of  silly  brown  sheep  that  regularly 
forgot  us  over -night;  looking  over  at  Mon- 
real,  away  down  stream,  situate  on  such! 
another  hill,  brown  against  the  blue  moun¬ 
tain. 

One  morning  we  climbed  to  the  ancient 
city  above  us,  to  find  no  more  than  the 
ground  plan  of  a  castle  that  a  king’s  and 
a  cardinal’s  jealousy  had  ruined;  and  the 
shapeless  form  of  a  church  that  Jesuits’ 


207 


The  wind 
of  the 
world 


AND  MONOGRAPHS.  I 


208 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  u  ■! 
prophet  s  1 

chamber 

\ 

piety  later  had  erected  and  deformed  with 
a  baroque  altar-piece.  Considering  the 
date  and  the  general  formlessness  of  the 
brick  agglomeration,  it  was  curious  to  see, 
notwithstanding,  all  the  members  of  Jaca 
cathedral  here:  the  open  southern  porch,  the 
western  tower,  the  shallow  transepts  and 
low  square  above  the  crossing;  only  here  the 
apse  is  square-ended  like  the  other  termi¬ 
nations.  Above  the  church  porch,  reached 
by  a  fine  flight  of  steps,  is  a  little  apart¬ 
ment,  inhabited.  I  have  seen  the  same  at 
S.  Ciprian  in  Segovia,  and  at  Fornells  on 
the  Catalonian  frontier.  Of  the  deliberate 
desolation  of  the  town  in  the  sixteenth 
century  I  spoke  too  hastily:  one  of  the 
town  gates  does  survive,  built  into  a  house, 
and  through  it  the  winds  blow.  In  the 
view  the  Sierra  de  Leyre  rises  grandly, 
wooded  chiefly  with  scrub-oak  up  the  side 
and  topped  for  uncounted  miles  by  pali¬ 
sades  like  those  along  the  Hudson. 

Another  day  we  pushed  up  into  this 
sierra  in  search  of  the  venerable  abbey  of 
S.  Salvador  de  Leyre,  motoring  for  about 
an  hour  along  the  highway  to  Yesa,  there 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

209 

taking  a  couple  of  donkeys  and  old  women 
and  at  the  church  dismissing  them  with 
half  a  notion  of  walking  home  across 
country.  But  we  did  not  risk  it,  for  that 
the  way  dipped  down  at  least  twice  out  of 
sight  of  landmarks,  we  could  clearly  per¬ 
ceive,  and  that  the  land  was  cut  up  with 
sheep  tracks  and  the  little  foot-wavs  by 
which  each  man  goes  in  the  morning  to 
work  his  own  patch  of  mountain  ground, 
the  long  plough  lashed  upon  the  donkey’s 
back,  and  comes  home  at  night  with  a 
stack  of  green  fodder  piled  above  it. 
Therefore  we  walked  back  as  we  had 
come,  to  Yesa,  over  stony  land  like  mons¬ 
trous  pudding-stone,  and  disputed  the  way 
with  a  brook  or  two,  and  soaking  springs. 
Awaiting  the  motor,  we  made  friends  with 
the  men,  who  hardly  at  all  mistrusted  us; 
the  women  who  gossiped,  an  hour  at  a 
time,  with  a  water-pail  like  a  churn  borne 
easily  on  the  head;  the  children  who  were 
dressed  like  old  women  and  like  them 
covered  the  hair,  tying  a  kerchief  under  the 
chin.  We  saw  trains  of  mules  go  through, 
and  again  loaded  waggons,  three  or  four 

f; 

.  .  .  And 
to  his 
labour 
until  the 
evening 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

210 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Protective 

colouring 

together,  and  everything  stopping  at  the 
toll  house  to  pay  according  to  its  value. 
We  sketched,  I  recall,  an  old  wrought  iron 
knocker,  on  a  street  door.  The  church 
had  no  interest  to  offer,  in  whitewashed 
nave  or  blunt  tower.  Not  one  house  in  the 
village  possessed  a  pane  of  glass:  wooden 
shutters  closed  the  windows  at  need. 

These  brown  Spanish  towns  have  the 
same  trait  as  some  birds  and  insects  and 
even  furry  things,  of  protective  colouring. 
Without  contour  or  colour  to  distinguish 
them,  they  disappear  into  the  landscape 
at  even  a  little  distance.  Men  were 
building  that  year  a  road  for  automobiles 
to  go  up  to  S.  Salvador,  so  for  those  who 
read  this  there  will  be  no  more  of  grey 
donkeys  and  stony  tracks. 

Leyre. 

Heureux  qui  voyage  On  y  prend  passage 
En  ces  lieux  benis:  Pour  le  Paradis. 

—  Hymn  of  Lourdes. 

Many  pilgrims  must  have  visited  the 
abbey,  for  it  is  very  venerable  and  lies 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

211 

only  a  few  miles  above  the  ancient  track, 
yet  none  brought  such  gifts  as  they  left 
in  towns  along  the  Way.  In  Navarre 
it  lies,  just  over  the  frontier,  but  I  find  it 
called  in  old  histories  court  and  heart  of 
the  realm.  At  times  it  was  the  seat  of  the 
diocese  now  named  of  Pampeluna,  and  for 
long  it  held  a  right  that  the  bishop  should 
be  selected  from  thence.  It  lasted  for  at 
least  a  thousand  years;  S.  Eulogius  visited 
it  in  851,  and  it  was  not  burned  till  1835. 
The  wealth  was  unspoiled  until  after  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  range  of  the 
eighteenth-century  monastery,  roofless  and 
empty-windowed,  dominates  the  plain 
front  of  the  church  for  a  long  way  up  the 
road.  A  donation  signed  in  908  still 
exists,  but  the  foundation  is  older,  for 
Inigo  Arista  we  know  restored  it,  and  the 
present  crypt,  I  am  pretty  sure,  belongs  to 
his  restoration  and  therefore  to  the  ninth 
century.  Benedictines  had  been  fetched 
to  it,  from  Cluny,  before  1022.  In  1090 
Sancho  Ramirez  conceded  to  it  the  exemp¬ 
tions  of  Cluny:  he  had  then  probably 
commenced  the  upper  church,  for  under 

A 

thousand 

years 

but  as 
yesterday 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

212 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

The  Bishop 
of  Com- 
postella 

the  reign  and  in  the  presence  of  Pedro 
Sanchez  his  son,  Peter  I,  the  consecration 
took  place  in  1098.  1 

Present  likewise  was  Bishop  Diego  of 
Santiago,  his  own  church  being  well  under 
way  and  the  decoration  in  the  hands  of 
workmen  of  the  same  school.  The  work 
at  Compostella  is  very  different  in  quality 
from  any  here,  that  is  to  say,  in  beauty 
absolute;  it  is  less  archaic  than  some  on 
this  portal  and  purer  and  earlier  than  the 
rest.  A  chance  such  as  this  for  the  student 
to  make  comparison  is  precious  as  rare. 

The  church  then  consecrated  must  have 
consisted  of  three  apses,  circular,  and  quite 
plain  without;  and  then  two  bays  of  barrel 
vaulting,  the  aisles  excessively  high  and 
narrow.  On  the  western  face  of  the  last 
pier  are  attached  shafts,  their  capitals  in 
the  same  style,  as  if  in  preparation  for 
continuing  a  nave  that  was  never  to  be 
built.  Possibly  this  eleventh -century  build¬ 
ing  had  actually  a  nave,  later  to  be  pulled 
down:  possibly  the  western  door  was  com¬ 
menced  early  and  duly  reared  but  the 
junction  with  the  choir  never  effected. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

213 

In  1230  the  Cistercians  were  introduced: 
“because  of  abuses,”  says  a  historian. 
Benedictines  dislodged  them  from  1270  to 
1273  only,  then  they  returned  for  good, 
and  some  time  thereafter  built  the  present 
nave  of  a  single  great  span.  In  style  the 
building,  says  Sr.  Lamperez,-  is  Poitevin 
of  the  most  archaic,  and  it  belongs  to  the 
eleventh  century;  the  Cistercians  length¬ 
ened,  raised  and  vaulted  it.  This  great 
span  excels  as  a  wonder  that  which  at 
Gerona  Guillermo  Boffy  planned  in  14x6, 
and  precedes  it  by  a  generation  if  not  two. 
The  vaults  are  of  the  fourteenth  century 
indisputably,  and  should  be  compared  with 
those  of  the  church  of  Ujue  in  Navarre. 

The  portal  as  it  stands  was  put  together, 
largely  out  of  earlier  material,  in  the  four¬ 
teenth  century.  The  grotesques,  which  cer¬ 
tainly  are  not  earlier  than  that,  are  curi¬ 
ously  crude,  not  so  much  barbarous  as  pue¬ 
rile.  Like  5.  Juan  de  la  Peri  a,  S.  Salvador 
lay  out  of  the  world,  out  of  the  main 
stream,  and  there  is  danger  of  dating  every¬ 
thing  too  early  and  mistaking  archaism  for 
age. 

Archaic 

Poitevin 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

214 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

School  of 
Toulouse 

It  is  impossible,  for  instance,  to  admit 
that  the  figures  in  the  tympanum  belong  to 
Carolingian  times,  that  is  to  say,  to  Inigo 
Arista’s  building.  They  are  of  the  school 
of  Toulouse,  and  they  are  provincial  imita¬ 
tions  of  work  accepted  and  mature.  We 
have  no  dated  work  in  Toulouse  earlier 
than  S.  Sernin,  consecrated  1098.  The  fig¬ 
ures  of  Christ  and  the  angels  built  into 
the  choir  enclosure  there,  show  how  that 
art  began:  these  at  Leyre  show  how  it 
could  end. 

Similarly  in  the  crypt  the  capitals  are 
quite  literally  barbaric,  carved  chiefly  with 
parallel  grooves  and  spirals  that  may  be 
intended  to  imitate  the  Ionic  volute  but 
curve  the  wrong  way.  Madrazo  gives 
some  drawings  of  these. 3  In  France,  I 
think  the  capitals  cited  by  Courajod4 
without  a  date  in  some  remote  Breton 
churches,  may  be  of  the  same  kind;  and 
those  of  the  ninth  century  at  Cruas,  in  the 
Ardeehe,  though  better,  suggest  them. 

The  division  into  nave  and  aisles,  in  the 
lower  church,  is  further  complicated  by  a 
row  of  shafts  and  arches  carried  midway 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

215 

down  the  nave  and  even  through  the  apse 
of  it;  and  another  transverse  row,  which 
makes  four  bays  in  all  from  east  to  west. 
Owing  to  the  fall  of  the  ground,  the  apses 
of  the  crypt  open  well  into  the  light,  as  at 
S.  Martin  de  Unx,  in  Navarre,  at  Saintes 
and  Auxerre  in  France  and  in  so  many 
other  early  Romanesque  churches.  The 
low  arches,  stilted,  carry  a  barrel  vault, 
and  inside  the  arch  of  the- main  apse  are 
cylindrical  shafts  of  which  the  capital  is 
merely  a  larger  cylinder  incised  with  a  few 
lines. 

Crypt 

In  the  early  part  of  the  upper  church 

the  capitals,  while  primitive,  do  not  lack 
grace.  The  arch  of  the  aisles  is  very  stilted 
and  at  the  entrance  to  the  apses  stood  a 
shaft  under  the  arch;  this  was  cut  away  at 

and 

some  period  to  accommodate  retables  now 
perished  but  luckily  the  capitals  were  left. 
The  barrel  vault  of  the  aisles  is  much  higher 
than  the  nave  arcade,  a  curious  trait  which 
may  be  associated  with  the  same  relative 
lowness  of  the  arches  between  nave  and 
aisles  in  such  pre-Romanesque  churches  as 
S.Juan  de  Banos  and  5.  Salvador  de  V al-de - 

east  end 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

216 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

French 

instances 

Dios.  At  any  rate,  some  account  must  be 
made  out  for  it,  considering  the  uncommon 
height,  normally,  of  the  nave  arcade  in 
those  churches  of  Poitou  which  S.  Salva¬ 
dor  most  recalls.  The  interior,  if  the  nave 
as  planned  originally  was  ever  done,  would 
have  looked  like  those  of  Chauvigny  and  S. 
Savin,  or  S.  Hilaire  of  Poitiers  which  cer¬ 
tainly  was,  after  a  fashion,  completed,  with 
the  same  exceeding  height  and  exceed¬ 
ing  narrowness,  and  with  a  timber  roof, 
by  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century. 5  The 
great  difference  between  the  French 
churches  and  this  lies  in  their  acceptance 
of  the  ambulatory  chapels:  but  the  S. 
Hilaire  consecrated  in  1049  had  a  great 
apse  and  two  small  ones  eastward  of  the 
transept,  and  the  present  arrangement  be¬ 
longs  to  a  reconstruction  in  the  twelfth 
century  when  the  edifice  was  vaulted  by  an 
architect  who  seems  accountable  for  the 
present  absurd  arrangement  in  the  nave,  as 
well  as  for  an  ambulatory  with  four  chapels. 
The  piers  there  are  cruciform,  a  three- 
quarter  column  on  each  face,  so  also  at 
Chauvigny,  which  lies  on  a  frequented 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

217 

road.  Half  way  between  there  and  Poi¬ 
tiers,  S.  Julian  had  a  shrine.  There  was  a 
straight  way  for  builders  to  come,  sum¬ 
moned  or  on  the  tramp. 

The  nave,  only  two  steps  lower  than  the 
older  part,  consists  of  three  bays  of  fine 
ribbed  vaulting  and  one,  narrow  and  a  trifle 
taller,  at  the  western  end.  Like  the  Poite- 
vin  churches  of  a  single  nave,  it  has  strong 
round  lateral  arches  against  the  wall,  and 
on  the  south,  in  the  first  bay,  another  great 
round  arch,  higher,  that  springs  from  about 
the  springing  of  the  present  vault.  In  that 
same  bay,  on  the  north  wall,  is  a  good  late- 
pointed  window  of  two  lights,  cusped,  under 
a  cusped  triangle,  and  this  bay  ends,  on 
each  side,  with  a  shaft  against  a  pilaster, 
as  if  there  had  been  an  intention  while  the 
walls  were  going  up  to  continue  the  eastern 
part.  In  the  next  two  bays  a  round- 
headed  window  comes  just  under  the  la¬ 
teral  arch  on  the  south  side,  having  one 
shaft  in  the  jambs  and  beautiful  fantastic 
capitals,  one  of  birds  with  their  necks 
interlaced.  A  similar  transitional  window 
in  the  west  wall  has,  however,  early  Gothic 

Nave 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

2 1 8 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  long  day 

capitals.  In  the  south  wall  a  very  beautiful 
little  door  that  opens  into  a  chapel  led 
once  to  the  cloister:  the  head  of  the  round 
arch  is  strongly  moulded,  the  tympanum 
carved  on  the  outer  face  with  the  labarum 
in  low  relief ;  the  capitals  of  the  three  shafts 
in  each  jamb  are  adorned  with  plant  forms 
stylized  without  loss  of  feeling  for  the  pine- 
tassel  and  cone,  the  young  shoots  of  the 
vine,  and  others. 

Of  the  portal  I  am  entitled  to  speak  in 
some  detail,  as  to  iconography  and  style 
both,  for  I  spent  the  best  part  of  a  day  in 
watching  it.  At  the  convenience  of  the 
motor  omnibus  we  had  set  out  in  the  sun¬ 
rise  and  were  to  return  at  dusk.  We  had 
inspected  the  church  exhaustively,  and  the 
crypt  and  the  capitals  and  the  mouldings 
and  the  vaults.  We  had  raised  and  laid 
again  all  the  probabilities  of  date  and 
provenance,  and  photographed  everything 
accessible.  Jehane  has  a  nice  sense  for 
the  look  of  a  century,  which  she  educated 
long  ago  at  the  Museum  of  the  Trocadero; 
her  rough  guess  is  always  suggestive. 
The  old  women  who  had  peered  and  lis- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY  219 


tened  after  us  went  home  again,  and 
there  was  nothing  to  do  but  watch  the 
portal  and  as  the  sun  moved  try  another! 
photograph.  We  lunched  on  potato  ome¬ 
lette  and  cold  breaded  chops;  jehane  slept  ! 

on  the  grass  and  woke  and  consumed  such 
of  the  chops  as  remained  and  wandered  off 
to  exchange  amenities  with  the  caretaker,  j 
her  dog,  and.  her  donkey :  I  had  nothing  to 
do  but  look  at  the  portal. 

The  convent  of  Leyre  was  planted  on  a 
spur  of  the  great  sierra  which  runs  off  at  windows 
about  half  the  height,  on  the  very  spine  or  that  look  j 
ridge  of  it,  so  that  eastward  the  windows  of  IKto  the 
the  crypt  look  into  the  sun  over  falling  [sun 
gullies  and  copsewood,  and  at  the  west  a 
narrow  terrace,  well  shaded  with  holm- 
oak  and  walnut,  is  sustained  by  a  low  wall 
of  stone.  Over  this  you  may  lean  and, 
looking  over  plantations  where  once  were 
forests,  even  into  the  kingdom  of  Aragon, 
rest  at  last  upon  the  bare  flanks  of  the 
Pyrenean  outliers.  Opposite  the  portal 
this  wall  swells  into  a  hemicycle  and 
receives  a  stone  bench:  lying  there  in  the 
sun  waiting  while  the  shadows  moved,  in 


AND  MONOGRAPHS!  I 


220 


The  Abbot 
Viril 


known  also 
at  Samos 


WAY  OF  S .  JAMES 


the  quiet  of  a  land  inhabited,  while  the 
insects  sang  a  tiny  tune  from  which  you 
missed  the  constant  thrill  of  the  cicada, 
where  danced  the  blue-mailed  flies,  the 
gossamer-winged  gnats,  while  a  dog  barked 
far  away,  I  thought  of  the  abbot  Viril. 

In  his  day  the  whole  mountain  side  was 
thick  forest,  and  the  tiny  church  which  he 
knew,  and  the  cluster  of  cells,  was  walled 
in,  houses  and  herb-garden,  against  the 
wolves.  From  this  station  he  looked  out 
on  the  heaving  top  of  a  vast  wood,  that 
filled  the  valley  except  where  the  white 
road  ran,  and  the  river’s  course  was  marked 
by  a  brighter  green.  It  is  said  that  one 
evening  at  the  hour  of  recreation,  Viril 
went  out  the  convent  gate  and  down  to  a 
clear  spring,  under  a  rock,  in  the  outskirts 
of  the  wood,  pacing  quietly,  breathing  the 
evening  cool  and  the  grassy  sweets,  but 
troubled  in  mind.  If  Heaven  were  indeed 
all  music,  eternally  prolonged,  he  had  an 
instant  fear  that  one  might,  in  the  end,  be 
bored.  This  was  right  Spanish,  the  ennui 
and  the  orthodoxy  both.  The  shocking 
thought  would  not  away,  and  the  good 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  WAY 


221 


old  man  was  mightily  perturbed.  Above 
the  spring  a  little  brown  bird  on  a  bough 
sang  and  sang,  now  so  softly,  now  so  brow8„f 
rapturously,  that  he  stayed  his  walk.  It  bird!” 
sang,  may  be,  three  minutes  and  then 
spread  wings  and  flew  away,  and  the  abbot 
turned  back,  for  night  was  thickening 
under  the  trees.  His  sight  was  troubled 
in  the  dusk,  for  when  he  reached  the  con¬ 
vent  gate  he  hardly  knew  it,  nor  yet  the 
porter’s  face,  and  the  brothers,  coming  in 
from  recreation,  looked  unfamiliar.  They 
stood  about  staring  a  little  silently,  and 
one  said  a  word  about  calling  the  abbot, 
and  Viril  said,  quite  gently,  that  he  con¬ 
ceived  himself  to  be  the  abbot,  and  they 
fell  silent  again.  One  who  had  slipped 
away  came  back  anon,  bringing  the  abbot 
and  the  old,  old  monk  with  whom  he  had 
at  the  moment  been  engaged.  This  one  it 
was  who  remembered  in  the  puzzled  talk 
that  followed,  to  have  heard  long  since 
how  three  hundred  years  ago  an  abbot 
Viril,  going  out  at  twilight,  had  never 
again  come  in:  for  the  three  minutes  of  the 
bird’s  song  had  been  three  hundred  years. 


*  ND  MONOGRAPHS-  j  I 


222 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Evensong 

So  Viril  was  assured  of  the  joy  of  heaven 
and  in  three  days,  having  received  the 
sacraments,  his  soul  passed  thither  and  his 
body  was  buried  beside  the  dust  of  his  old 
monks. 6 

The  Court 
of  Silent 
Dreams 

Three  bright  flies,  in  metallic  armour  of 
blue  and  green,  hung  in  the  sunlight.  Yes, 
that  is  Spain,  the  thought  went  on,  you 
listen  to  the  magical  bird’s  song,  and  the 
sound  of  it  is  never  out  of  your  ears  again. 

There  is  a  poem  by  Sung  Chih-Wen,  I 
recalled,  to  the  same  effect :  then  I  n  the  court 
of  silent  dreams  I  lost  myself  again. 

Little  by  little  in  the  changing  lights 
details  became  clearer,  figures  grew  recog¬ 
nizable,  intentions  defined  themselves.  It 
is  highly  convenient  to  go  to  a  place  in  your 
own  automobile  and  when  you  have  seen 
enough  to  go  away  again,  but  to  stay  there 
much  longer  than  you  like  is  more  instruc¬ 
tive. 

The  whole  portal,  seen  from  far,  is 
merely  a  projection  on  the  flat  face  of  the 
church.  Pious  hands  have  screened  the 
worn  sculptures  with  a  bit  of  penthouse 
roof,  otherwise  it  is  as  the  last  rebuilding 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

223 

left  it,  six  hundred  years  ago.  The  rather 
low  arch  of  the  tympanum  encloses  six 
figures  and  the  traces  of  a  seventh  that 
were  made  for  some  such  place  but  are 
merely  built  in  here.  They  are  of  the 
school  of  Toulouse,  and  represent  Christ 
blessing,  with  a  book,  between  SS.  Mary 
and  John,  SS.  Peter  and  James  also  blessing 
and  with  books,  finally,  in  the  left-hand 
comer,  a  little  seated  figure  writing  on  a 
tablet  with  style  in  one  hand  and  eraser 
in  the  other,  as  in  the  miniatures  of  manu¬ 
scripts  a  scribe  is  figured.  Unluckily  his 
head  is  gone,  and  the  whole  of  his  mate 
at  the  left.  Madrazo7  would  have  these 
figures  to  represent,  besides  the  Saviour 
and  His  mother,  SS.  Nunila  and  Alodia, 
W.  MM.,  on  her  right  and  His  left,  and 
SS.  Viril  and  Marcian  at  the  ends.  The  last 
two  identifications  may  be  right,  the  other 
figures,  however,  are  not  meant  for  women, 
but,  one  of  them,  for  the  Beloved  Disciple 
beardless  and  bareheaded.  Madrazo  also 
says 8  that  Cean  Bermudez  read  on  a  stone 
on  the  north  side,  “  Magister  Fulcherius  me 
fecit,”  but  does  not  care  to  admit  that  it 

SS.  Peter, 
James,  and 
John 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

224 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

M  aitrc 
Foulques 

could  have  been  right  since  Fulcherius  or 
Foulques  would  be  a  Frenchman.  There¬ 
fore  he  would  amend  Fulcherius  and  let 
the  unknown  architect  take  his  chance 
with  a  Roman  name ! 

The  archivolt  includes  three  main  sculp¬ 
tured  orders  with  decorative  moulding 
between,  and  a  broad  billet  outside;  of 
these,  the  innermost  is  decorated  mainly 
with  plant  forms,  the  next  two  with  gro¬ 
tesques  based  mainly  on  animal  forms,  lastly, 
a  broader  row  no  less  grotesque,  of  which 
some  details  are  masks  and  some  are  mon- 

“  — who 
sups  with 
the  devil 

sters  but  most  are  human,  a  man  hugging 
his  knees;  and  some  musicians,  one  with 
fiddle,  one  with  harp;  likewise  a  man 
supping  out  of  a  pot  with  a  long  spoon,  as 
the  proverb  says  in  certain  circumstances 
you  must.  I  conceive  all  ot  this,  like  a 
certain  leaf  or  shell  pattern  (recalling  the 
wild  mallow  of  garden  paths)  which  runs 
through  the  reconstruction,  bordering  the 
tympanum,  for  instance,  and  decorating 
the  abacus  of  one  of  the  jamb  shafts,  to 
be  of  the  fourteenth  century.  On  each  of 
the  flat  buttress-pilasters  that  flank  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

225 

jambs,  stands  a  saint,  a  lion  above  him 
and  another  under  his  feet.  The  lions  are 
Lombard-looking,  one  eating  a  sheep;  the 
figures  Toulousan.  So  are  the  capitals, 
carved,  two  with  birds,  their  necks  inter¬ 
laced,  or  with  animals,  one  being  early 
Gothic.  Finally  stretched  across  the  top 
of  the  projecting  mass  of  the  portal,  and 
filling  the  spandrels,  are  figures  and  parts 
of  figures  remotely  Toulousan,  left  from 
an  earlier  fagade.  On  the  capital  of  the 
central  shaft,  which  is  formed  by  four 
seated  men,  the  drapery  is  very  finely 
worked  and  reminds  me  on  the  one  hand 
of  the  seated  Saviour  at  Avila,  and  on  the 
other  of  the  zodiacal  figures  at  Toulouse. 
I  conceive  this  capital  to  be  a  bit  of  re¬ 
pairing,  done  by  a  master  passing  who 
was  familiar  with  Languedoc  and  Castile. 
Heads  of  the  evangelical  lion  and  ox  jut 
out  as  if  to  support  a  lintel. 

In  the  mass  of  sculptures  built  about  this 
arch,  not  all  are  plain,  but  some  are  un¬ 
mistakable  :  chief  among  these,  in  the  left- 
hand  spandrel,  the  great  S.  James  with  his 
staff  and  book.  A  head  alongside  seems 

Avila  and 
Languedoc 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

226 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Trans¬ 
figuration 

that  of  one  dead  or  sleeping.  Above,  in  the 
row  of  statues  just  under  the  cornice,  you 
have,  first,  S.  Michael  (or  possibly  S. 
George)  with  the  long  triangular  shield  of 
the  twelfth  century,  trampling  upon  the 
conquered  dragon’s  scaly  folds,  then, 
blessing,  the  Christ  of  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration,  between  the  chosen  apos¬ 
tles.  Two  of  these  have  beards  curled  and 
parted,  like  those  of  Toulouse;  the  third, 
the  Beloved,  is  again  young  and  beardless, 
and  points  to  his  book.  In  a  triangular 
space  on  either  hand,  near  the  summit  of 
the  arch,  angels  are  trumpeting  to  Judge¬ 
ment  through  great  olifaunts,  and  above 
them,  next  the  young  S.  John,  are,  amongst 
others  on  a  smaller  scale  than  heretofore,  a 
couple  of  women  whom  I  take  to  be  of  the 
risen  righteous,  and  a  man  in  pilgrim  cloak 
and  sun-hat,  in  suppliant  posture.  On 
the  northern  half,  which  is  the  Saviour’s 
left,  you  find  hell-mouth,  figured  as  a  gi¬ 
gantic  mask  with  eyes,  ears,  and  ribbons 
dangling  down  from  the  lips:  a  devil  points 
it  out  to  a  man.  Jonah  lies  under  his 
whale,  which  is  curved  like  a  dolphin. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


Into  the  remaining  space  on  this  side  the 
Annunciation  and  Visitation  have  been 
tucked  away.  In  the  former  the  angel, 
in  accordance  with  Byzantine  iconographic 
use,  has  one  wing  folded  back  over  his 
shoulder  like  a  cloak,  and  the  other 
stretched  out  behind  his  outstretched 
hand  which  holds  a  cross  —  a  beautiful 
bit  of  symbolism  that  I  do  not  recall  else¬ 
where.  Over  the  Visitation  broods  the 
Holy  Ghost. 9  The  women  wear  hanging 
sleeves  with  a  close  wrinkled  sleeve  below, 
and  veils  drawn  up  about  the  face  to  form 
a  wimple. 

Now  for  the  interpretation  of  all  this. 
The  early  church  was  Poitevin  in  style,  as 
shown  by  the  great  height  and  narrowness 
of  the  aisles  and  the  use  and  proportions 
of  the  longitudinal  arches.  Churches  of 
this  type  have  room  for  much  sculpture 
on  the  facade,  even  for  several  distinct 
themes;  Notre- Dame-la-Grande  accommo¬ 
dates  more  figures,  and  more  apparently 
confused  but  really  coherent  symbolism  than 
this  of  Leyre  could  ever  amount  to.  In  a 
church  dedicated  to  S.  Saviour  the  patronal 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


227 


The  An¬ 
nunciation 


The  Key 


228 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

feast  is  kept  on  August  6,  the  Feast  of 
the  Transfiguration,  and  the  scene  upon 
Mount  Tabor  belongs  therefore  among  the 
sculptures.  The  reader  may  recall  that 
at  the  cathedral  of  Santiago  at  Compo- 
stella,  Aymery  Picaud  saw  this  same 
Transfiguration  occupying  the  west  door¬ 
way,  whence  it  was  displaced  by  Master 
Matthew’s  Apocalypse,  and  a  motive 
somewhat  similar  in  the  face  of  the 

The 

south  transept  above  the  doors,  Christ 

cypress 

/ 

and  S.  James,  the  cypress  of  the  moun¬ 
tain  and  Abraham  who  awakens  for  he 
has  seen  the  Day  of  the  Lord.  The 
head  I  noted  here  at  Leyre,  I  take  to  be 
Abraham’s. 

The  theme  of  the  Last  Judgement  was 
firmly  established  in  the  south  by  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century.  At  Beau- 
liei ,  at  Autun,  at  Espalion,  the  angels  are 
trumpeting  and  the  dead  are  rising.  Jonah 
appears  here,  fantastically  indeed,  but  no 
more  irregularly  than  on  the  pulpits  in  the 

The  whale 

south  of  Italy,  to  enforce  the  great  mystery 
of  the  Resurrection.  Lastly,  somewhere 
among  the  innumerable  arcades  of  this 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


style  room  was  found,  as  at  N otre-Dame- 
la-Grande,  for  the  joyful  mysteries  of  the 
Incarnation,  the  Angelic  Salutation  and 
the  Magnificat.  These  all  belong  to  that 
church  of  which  just  enough  was  finished 
tor  consecration  in  the  last  year  of  the 
eleventh  century,  to  permit  the  daily  Mass 
and  the  monastic  office.  It  may  be  that  the 
saint  upon  the  south  jamb,  and  his  fellow, 
quite  worn  away,  on  the  north,  are  a  trifle 
later  in  date  than  the  mass  of  the  work, 
and  that  the  figures  in  the  tympanum  are 
not  only  more  archaic  but  actually  elder. 
The  same  difference  of  date  among  statues 
of  a  single  fabric  is  noticeable  at  Compo- 
Stella. 

What  I  have  shown  is  that  the  carven 
work  here  at  Leyre  may  fairly  be  dated 
at  the  outset  of  the  twelfth  century,10 
may  fairly  be  explained  by  comparison  with 
that  at  Santiago  and,  being  off  the  route 
of  pilgrims,  loses  the  advantage  of  that 
constant  interchange  of  reminiscence  and 
innovation,  suggestion  and  combination, 
which  was  the  making  of  a  church  like  S. 
Mary’s  at  Sanguesa. 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


229 


A.D.  1099 


Off  the 
track 


230 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  river 
Aragon 

Sanguesa. 

The  City  speaks: 

Casada  soy,  rey  Don  Juan, 
Casada  soy,  que  no  viuda; 
El  moro  que  ami  me  tiene 
Muy  grande  bien  me  qucria. 

Sanguesa  lies  really  not  very  far  from 
Tiermas,  though  the  river  Aragon  likes  to 
turn  and  wind  with  many  doublings  in 
between,  and  the  road  which  follows  the 
river  makes  a  great  business  of  it.  The 
motor  omnibus  does  not  follow  at  all,  but 
strikes  across  northward  and  combines  at 
another  station  with  the  good  little  electric 
line  that  runs  around  and  about  from 
Pampeluna  into  the  remote  valley  of 
Roncal  and,  on  another  fork,  half-way  to 
Roncevaux.  The  ancient  way,  however, 
made  but  one  stage  from  Jaca  to  Sanguesa 
that  lies  fair  and  lovely  by  the  green 
water’s  side.  Passing  through  the  town, 
you  climb  a  long  hill  and  come  out  in  a 
sort  of  upper  world,  with  heights  and 
valleys  of  its  own  and  a  great  sweep  of 
clean  bright  air  through  which  you  look 
across  to  a  brown  city  lying  on  a  brown  hill- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

Eunate 


THE  WAY 

233 

side,  like  a  rock  on  the  sands:  that  is  Sos, 
in  Aragon.  It  is  perhaps  a  good  moment 

The  Bean¬ 
stalk 

to  name  a  peculiarity  noted  more  than  once 

hereabouts,  how  you  may  climb  and  climb, 
with  long  loops  and  windings  ot  well- 
metalled  road,  and  come  up  at  last  into,  so 
to  speak,  Beanstalk-country,  with  its  own 
hills  and  dales,  from  which  you  do  not 

country 

again  descend.  Above  Sangiiesa  it  would 
seem  you  could  walk  on  forever  in  the 
bright  fierce  heat,  and  when  you  turn  back 
and  descend  the  long  declining  road  that 
grows  after  a  while  into  a  street,  you  are 
in  an  equally  valid  world  below,  by  the 
river.  Not  far  from  here  lies  Javier,  where 
S.  Francis  Xavier  was  born,  a  seat  of  pious 
memories  and  Jesuit  architecture. 

Sangiiesa,  called  la  que  nunca  falto,  was 
founded  virtually  by  Alfonso  el  Bataila’dor, 
who  in  1x32  gave  exemptions  and  privileges 

to  the  free  men  of  Sangiiesa  la  Vieja,  which 

Ford  and 

was  most  likely  Rocaforte,  if  they  would 
settle  on  the  plain  below  his  castle.  There 
was  a  ford  and  a  bridge,  there,  and  it  was 
frontier,  and  on  a  main  road,  so  the  castle 
had  to  keep  the  way  and  the  men  had  to 

bridge 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

I 

234 

WAY'  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

A  palatine 
church 

keep  the  castle.  The  year  before,  he  had 
made  a  gift  to  the  religious  of  S.  John  of 
Jerusalem  of  his  palace  which  stood  near 
the  bridge  and  the  church  within  it:  de  la 
Iglcsia  de  S.  Maria  que  estaba  dentro  del 
patio  del  rcy  al  principio  del  burgo  nuevo. 1 
That  cannot  quite  have  been  the  present 
church.  Unluckily  the  next  useful  date 
falls  too  late,  being  that  of  concessions 
made  by  Philip  of  Evreux,  the  spouse  of 
Queen  Jehane,  counted  as  Philip  III  of 
Navarre,  in  1330,  when  por  causa  del  diluvio 
de  agua  era  perdida  gran  parte  de  la  villa.  - 
S.  Mary  the  Royal  is  a  noble  transitional 
church  of  the  late  twelfth  century  with  an 
octagonal  dome  of  the  early  fourteenth 
carried  on  squinches:  it  has  three  apses 
arcaded  round  inside,  high  up,  three  aisles 
of  two  bays,  but  no  transept,  and  a  western 
gallery.  The  main  arches  are  all  pointed 
and  a  strong  quadripartite  vault,  beauti¬ 
fully  ribbed,  descends  upon  clustered  piers 
with  two  columns  on  each  face  and  another 
in  each  comer  to  receive  the  ribs.  The 
capitals  are  mainly  of  Romanesque  form, 
developments  of  the  acanthus  or  applica- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

235 

tions  of  the  eagle;  one  pair  shows  griffins, 
elsewhere  lions  are  eating  a  creature;  all 
beautifully  conceived  and  executed.  The 
eastern  capitals  of  the  main  arcade  are 
early  Gothic,  the  later,  on  a  larger  scale, 
are  by  a  master.  The  design  of  a  Nativity 
is  like  that  of  the  Rood-screen  at  Chartres 
and  the  pulpit  at  Siena;  the  man  riding 
on  horseback  belongs  to  a  corresponding 
Epiphany,  and  the  head  of  the  follow¬ 
ing  horse  comes  around  the  corner.  The 
bases  are  high,  with  griffes  in  the  comer. 
The  west  wall  is  chiefly  occupied  by  an 
organ,  the  central  apse  by  a  monstrous 
retable. 

Probably  by  reason  of  some  disposition 
of  other  buildings  around  the  original 
patio,  the  portal  occupies  the  first  bay 
of  the  south  face.  We  have  seen,  already, 
that  Spanish  architects  took  kindly  to  side 
portals.  It  was  itself  at  some  time  rebuilt. 
In  the  upper  part  two  rows  of  statues  in 
round-headed  arcades  recall  the  southwest 
of  France.  In  the  lower  half  a  great  pointed 
doorway  is  set,  with  statues  against  the  col¬ 
umns  of  the  jambs;  the  tympanum  being 

The  side 
portal 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

236 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Confusion 

or  com¬ 
bination  ? 

occupied  by  a  Doom,  and  with  the  twelve 
apostles  under  arches  and  a  Madonna  and 
child;  the  archivolts  filled  with  figures. 
The  triangular  spaces  left  on  either  side 
of  these  are  crowded  with  sculptures,  some 
left  over  from  the  earlier  version  of  the 
portal,  some  carved  in  the  Spanish  style 
of  the  late  twelfth  century,  for  the  places 
they  now  occupy,  to  fill  up  gaps.  The 
upper  part  suggests  the  style  of  Poitou, 
the  tympanum  recalls  Languedoc,  the 
jamb  statues  are  of  the  school  of  Chartres. 
M.  Bertaux 3  thinks  the  whole  portal  was 
made  at  once  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
with  its  disproportion  and  confusion,  as 
children  make  play-houses  with  shells  and 
pebbles.  He  is  probably  mistaken:  six 
leagues  beyond  Pampeluna  on  the  other 
side,  at  Puente  la  Reyna,  you  will  find  a 
portal  built  all  at  once,  and  it  comes  out 
quite  different.  Sr.  Lamperez  suggests4 
that  perhaps  the  church  of  Alfonso  sur¬ 
vives  in  the  head  (i.  e.,  the  east  end),  the 
plan,  with  the  portal  up  to  the  springing 
of  the  pointed  arches,  and  the  outer  walls: 
the  windows  moreover  and  the  vaults  of 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

237 

the  apse  and  jambs  of  the  door  are  in 
keeping  with  other  Spanish  work  of  the 
early  twelfth  century.  In  a  restoration 
executed  about  a  century  later  the  piers 
and  vaults  of  the  nave  will  have  been  made, 
and  the  portal  altered.  The  tympanum 
has  been  cut,  he  notices,  to  admit  of  a 
pointed  arch,  and  in  the  face  of  the  jambs 
the  columns  do  not  spring  from  the  ground 
but  commence  rather  high  up,  which  shows 
that  the  earlier  doorway  lacked  columns. 
Lastly,  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  thirteenth 
century  was  built  the  lantern,  of  perfect 
early  Gothic.  The  upper  part  of  the 
tower  is  of  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth 
century.  Straightway  thereafter,  the  dis¬ 
tinguished  architect  adds  that  S.  Mary’s 
may  have  been  completely  rebuilt  about 
1200,  using  only  scraps  of  the  earlier 
church,  and  finishing  the  tower  lantern  in 
the  first  third  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
From  this  the  reader  may  judge  how  diffi¬ 
cult  is  Spanish  archaeology.  In  remoter 
parts  of  Navarre,  at  Aybar,  only  an  hour 
away,  or  at  S.  Martin  de  Unx,  the  con¬ 
temporary  style  is  quite  different:  heavy, 

Alterna¬ 
tive  dates 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

238 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Foot-path 

wayfarers 

Romanesque  and  hugeous.  The  present 
business,  however,  is  not  with  dates  so 
much  as  with  sources,  not  with  precedence 
so  much  as  inter-relation.  We  have  seen 
that  at  Leyre  when  the  Cistercians  rebuilt 
the  nave  they  made  the  portal  out  of  frag¬ 
ments  of  the  old  facade:  we  shall  see  that 
at  Puente  la  Reyna  when  Knights  of  S. 
John  built  the  church  of  the  Crucified 
and  the  King  built  that  of  S.  James,  the 
form  of  the  portal  is  logical,  the  sculptures 
keep  appointed  places,  the  order  is  plain 
as  in  Tuscany  or  Normandy.  If  then  S. 
Maria  was  built  and  rebuilt,  so  to  speak, 
before  our  eyes,  we  may  recognize  in  the 
workmen  who  collaborated,  and  combined 
so  strangely  such  alien  elements,  precisely 
those  pilgrims  who  were  passing  incessantly 
along  the  road. 

In  the  Middle  Age — it  has  been  said 
already — craftsmen  wandered  about,  and 
the  builder’s  trade  was  less  stationary  than 
most ;  the  parallel  of  the  Comacine  masters 
established  a  precedent  halt  a  millennium 
before;  the  note-book  of  Villard  de  Hon- 
necourt  is  evidence  that  a  man  in  the 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

239 

thirteenth  century  was  sketching  in  Cham¬ 
pagne  and  Switzerland,  in  Artois  and  in 
Hungary.  Here  at  Sanguesa  appear  (they 
have  already  been  evoked)  plain  tokens 
that  such  workmen  have  come  along  and 
stopped  a  bit,  left  their  handiwork  and 
their  teaching  behind.  Even  when  they 
came  from  very  far,  on  their  pilgrimage 
they  had  passed  by  the  great  shrines  of  the 
west  of  France,  on  the  long  Atlantic  slope 
where  English  armies  were  already  counter¬ 
marching  and  destroying;  or  else  they  had 
come  down  through  the  high  volcanic  land 
midway  between  that  and  the  immense 
river  Rhone,  where  rocks  were  coloured  like 
the  skins  of  beasts  and  pied  and  banded 
churches  broke  up  out  of  the  ground,  down 
into  the  soft  luxurious  plain  of  Languedoc, 
and  always  the  ways  of  building  and  the 
forms  of  ornament  were  fresh  and  living  in 
their  minds. 

As  late  as  the  fourteenth  century  churches 
were  built,  in  the  part  of  France  repre¬ 
sented  by  the  departments  of  Vienne  and 
Charente-Inferieure,  with  arcades  across 
the  upper  part  and  statues  under  every 

"...  in 
Flandresin 
Artoys.  . 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

240 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

.  .  d  Pont 
puis  d 

Blaye  " 

arch,  and  they  were  begun  at  least  as  early 
as  the  eleventh.  The  church  of  Perignac, 
near  Pons,5  on  the  road  from  Saintes  to 
Bordeaux,  illustrates  such  an  arrangement 
with  two  rows  of  arcading,  a  large  window 
in  the  centre  of  the  upper  row,  a  Madonna 
enthroned  with  the  child  in  the  centre  of 
the  lower.  This  sort  served  as  a  model 
for  S.  Maria  at  Sangiiesa.  Under  a  deep 
cornice,  sustained  by  animal  heads,  heavy 
and  very  plain,  run  the  two  rows  of  double- 
shafted  arches :  six  figures  occupy  the  upper 
arcade  and  in  an  oblong  space  in  the  centre 
the  Christ  sits  enthroned,  blessing,  between 
the  four  living  things.  The  ox  and  lion 
at  His  feet  are  not  treated  symmetrically 
but  face  the  same  way,  to  the  spectator’s 
right,  which  is  precisely  the  blunder  a  local 
workman  would  make  in  handling  a  theme 
unfamiliar;  but  the  lion  has  the  right 
Chinese  smile,  like  that  of  Moissac.  Two 
angels  flank  this  and  in  the  outermost 
arches  are  S.  Peter  and  another  saint: 
eight  more  saints,  among  whom  S.  James 
alone  may  be  distinguished,  leaning  on  his 
staff,  occupy  the  lower  range;  they  are 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

241 

probably  all  apostles  and  with  the  two 
above  and  the  human  image  which  re¬ 
presents  S.  Matthew  in  the  Tetramorph, 
make  up  the  eleven.  On  the  tympanum 
of  the  door,  below,  the  lowest  third  (or 
something  more)  is  occupied  by  what 
should  fill  a  lintel  if  one  there  were,  another 
arcade,  round-headed,  sustained  by  single 
shafts  patterned  over  with  the  chevron, 
meander,  spiral,  etc.,  like  that  at  La  Char- 
ite-sur-Loire.  The  Virgin  crowned  and 
seated  on  a  Roman  chair  holds  the 
Child  upon  her  left  knee.  Here  is  not  the 
Sedes  Sapientiae,  the  venerable  Madonna 
of  Majesty  with  its  ancient  unalterable 
frontality,  but  head  and  shoulders  are 
turned  a  little  eastward,  the  right  arm  is 
laid  across  the  body,  to  hold  the  Child’s, 
and  the  head  is  a  little  inclined.  The 
portal  of  Cahors,  now  on  the  north  side 
of  the  church  but  once  at  the  west,  puts 
into  the  lower  part  of  the  tympanum,  above 
the  lintel,  a  similar  arcade.  Above  sits  a 
gigantic  Christ,  with  cross-marked  nimbus, 
between  four  trumpeting  angels:  He  has 
the  mitre-crown  of  Moissac  and  the  bare 

La  Chari te- 
sur-  Loire 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

242 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Weighing 

Souls 

shoulder  and  breast  of  Beaulieu  but  no 
wound.  He  blesses  with  two  fingers  and 
the  thumb.  On  His  right  two  rows  of  the 
blessed  crowd  towards  Him;  on  His  left 
the  reprobate,  above,  are  chained  into  a 
long  gang;  below,  the  angel  weighs  the 
souls,  which  is  a  French  motive.  Looking 
back  over  the  whole  length  of  the  Way, 

I  recall  it  in  only  two  instances,  here  and 
at  Estella,  on  parish  churches,  and  on  the 
two  cathedrals  of  Burgos  and  Leon.  Hell 
is  a  sprawling  monster  with  horns,  teeth,  and 
tongue,  but  the  fourteenth -century  motive 
of  the  Jaws  of  Death  has  not  yet  appeared. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  angel,  three  charm¬ 
ing  women  lean  one  against  the  other,  and 
you  divine  that  they  are  saved. 

Coming  to  the  jamb-figures,  we  have 
further  to  look  for  origins  but  the  case  is 
clear.  Three  queens  from  Chartres  came 
all  the  long  way.  Wasted  though  they 
are  almost  to  the  state  of  the  dead,  some¬ 
thing  of  the  old  dignity  and  loveliness  yet 
clings  about  them.  That  nearest  the  door 
has  still  the  level  brows,  the  troubling 
smile,  of  her  lovely  worn  sisters  in  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

243 

north.  Opposite  are  men,  more  ruinous, 
and  grimly  jocular  without  their  noses,  like 
the  French  Death’s  head,  le  vieux  Camus. 
The  sculptor  of  these  six  statues  was  trained 
in  the  school  of  Chartres,  which  reached 
from  Senlis  down  to  Bourges  and  from 
Etampes  in  the  west,  to  S.  Loup  de  Naud 
in  the  east.  Moreover,  one  capital  above 
the  innermost  figure  on  either  hand  is 
crowned  with  tabernacle  work  like  that  of 
Chartres,  though  the  bell  of  the  capital  is 
filled  with  leafage :  some  workman  combin¬ 
ing  remembered  motives  at  his  wanton 
will.  Of  the  other  capitals,  the  two  western¬ 
most  show  the  Expulsion  from  Paradise 
and  the  Presentation  in  the  Temple  when 
the  ancient  covenant  was  fulfilled ; 6  and  on 
the  east  side  one  is  given  over  to  the  Mas¬ 
sacre  of  the  Innocents  and  the  other  to  a 
Romanesque  development,  very  fair  and 
free,  of  the  acanthus  and  volutes.  Someone 
began  working  a  diaper  on  the  intervening 
shafts  but  never  finished. 

Five  rows  of  little  figures,  in  the  archi- 
volt,  are  set  on  the  line  of  the  arc  in  the 
French  fashion  and  not  on  the  radius  as  at 

School  of 
Chartres 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

244 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

“  .  .  .  a 
suckling 
snake  ” 

Leyre  and  in  the  west  of  Spain;  and  in 
three  cases  the  mouldings  in  which  they 
are  set  are  carved  very  deeply  with  diaper 
and  zigzag,  meander  and  spiral.  There  is 
some  evidence  here  of  an  alteration,  of 
plan  at  least:  in  the  innermost  row  an 
isolated  head,  which  would  be  expected 
at  the  peak  of  the  arch  (as  it  lies  in  that 
above),  falls  to  the  right  beyond  one 
figure;  in  the  outermost  row,  the  highest 
figure  on  the  left  faces  like  those  on  the 
right.  The  themes  are  confused  likewise: 
you  will  see  a  fine  king  and  several  of  the 
Apocalyptic  elders,  with  lamp  and  viol, 
and  prophets  with  scrolls,  and  confessors  or 
hermits,  and  in  this  company  a  naked  lady 
suckling  at  her  breasts  a  serpent  and  a 
toad.  An  angel  holds  a  little  soul  on  its 
knees,  a  man  sharpens  some  weapon  on  an 
anvil,  a  jongleur  turns  his  heels  over  to 
touch  his  head.  Some  of  the  Signs  of  the 
Months  are  plain:  winter  with  cup  and 
platter,  a  man  killing  a  hog,  another  graft¬ 
ing,  another  holding  his  falcon;  a  mermaid 
grasps  the  two  Fishes,  and  the  Twins  are 
knights  with  long  shields,  as  at  Chartres. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

245 

Aquarius  guards  his  waterpots,  and  re¬ 
membering  the  ladies  at  Toulouse  fondling 
the  signs  of  the  Lion  and  the  Ram,  one 
recognizes  here  one  man  holding  the  sign 
of  the  Bull  and  another  that  of  the  Goat. 
They  are  romantic  figures  that  might 
pass  for  the  “jeune  homme  caressant  sa 
chimereY 

The  entire  portal  projects  a  little  and  is 
further  enframed  by  buttresses  all  the 
way  up.  When  it  came  to  gathering  up 
the  fragments  that  remained,  some  of  these 
were  continued  around  the  comer  of  the 
eastern  buttress  and  against  the  chapel 
wall  that  projects  on  the  west.  The  mate 
to  a  great  winged  ox,  for  instance,  and  a 
broken  eagle,  in  one  of  the  spandrels,  is  a 
lion,  again  very  Chinese  about  the  head, 
built  into  that  chapel  wall.  In  the  same 
left  hand  spandrel  occur  also :  the  Tempta¬ 
tion  and  Fall,  Cain  killing  Abel;  S.  James 
on  a  great  horse  trampling  naked  men;  a 
doe  suckling  her  young;  a  rose,  and  a 
great  interlaced  knot  of  a  sort  that  occurs 
at  Leyre.  That  knot  came  probably  from 
the  Black  Sea;  it  is  found  not  only  on  Me- 

Jeune 

homme 

caressant 

sa  chimire 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

246 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Knot 

rovingian  fibulae  and  on  a  capital  in  the 
tower  of  Brantome,  but  on  an  angel’s  breast 
in  a  capital  at  Constantinople,  on  the  door 
jambs  of  Ferrara  cathedral  as  well  as  the 
cloister-capitals  of  S.  Bertrand  de  Com- 
minges.7  Along  the  top  ramps  a  row  of 
scaly  monsters,  done  for  the  place,  opposite 
which  you  find  a  beautiful  row  of  dragon 
and  sphinx  forms  contemporary  with 
Puente  la  Reyna.  The  right-hand  spandrel 
in  the  main  is  more  confused,  but  in  com¬ 
pensation  you  have,  built  into  a  comer  of 
the  buttress  adjoining,  an  exquisite  little 
Wise  Virgin  holding  her  lamp  in  veiled 
hands;  and,  somewhat  above,  a  seated 
figure  of  Christ  teaching,  with  three  dis¬ 
ciples  about  him.  Here  too  appears  a  pair 
of  lions  of  the  Lombard  breed. 

All  this  work  covers,  then,  at  least  a 
century,  implies  at  least  one  rebuilding, 
and  represents  three  separate  regions  of 
France  contributing.  The  distance  is  not, 
even  on  foot,  a  day’s  journey  from  Jaca; 
the  difference  is  indescribable.  Jaca,  a 
capital  deep-rooted  in  antiquity,  was  the 
seat  of  kings,  the  heart  of  Aragon ;  Sangiiesa 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


was  a  stage  upon  the  Pilgrim  Way,  the 
creation  of  political  exigency. 

The  church  of  Santiago  looks  battered 
and  shapeless,  both  within  and  without. 
It  was  built  in  the  transitional  style,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  perhaps, 
with  nave  of  four  bays,  aisles,  apses  vaulted 
in  a  chevet,  and  a  great  tower  over  the 
beginning  of  the  central  apse.  The  main 
arches  are  all  pointed,  and  also  the  clere¬ 
story  windows  in  the  western  part;  the 
quadripartite  vault  rests  on  strong  vaulting 
shafts  that  come  down  to  huge  round 
columns.  The  capitals  are  all  crude  except 
the  pair,  of  three  each,  at  the  eastern  end 
of  the  nave;  the  shafts  of  the  window 
jambs  also  have  Gothic  capitals.  The 
portal,  pointed,  carries  on  each  side  three 
shafts,  their  capitals  a  development  of  the 
acanthus  leaf,  rich  and  fine  but  ruined  by 
paint.  From  S.  Nicholas,  ruined  and  gone, 
which  once  owed  obedience  to  Roncevaux, 8 
the  capitals  have  been  fetched  away,  and 
are  preserved  in  the  Museum  at  Pam- 
peluna:  they  are  strong  Spanish  Roman¬ 
esque. 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


247 


Santiago 


S.  Nicholas 


248 


S.  Salvador 


Carmen 


WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 


S.  Salvador  is  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
with  a  single  great  nave  of  six  bays,  quadri¬ 
partite  vaulting.  The  whole  apse  is  car¬ 
ried  up  into  a  tower.  Madrazo  says9  an 
earlier  portal  still  exists  inside  the  present 
one  of  the  fourteenth  century.  In  the  upper 
stage  of  this  the  Saviour  shows  His  wounds 
between  two  angels  that  hold  the  cross  and 
lance,  and  SS.  Mary  and  John  who  kneel  to 
intercede  in  the  corners.  Below,  on  the 
left,  the  dead  are  getting  up  out  of  stone 
sepulchres,  are  marshalled  in  a  long  line, 
at  last  are  tumbled  pell-mell  into  hell- 
mouth,  which  now  is  a  monstrous  and 
practicable  pair  of  jaws,  suggested  doubt¬ 
less  by  the  business  of  mystery-plays. 

The  Carmen  is  a  lovely  little  brown 
thing,  with  a  door  round -arched  above 
thin  mouldings,  and  some  storied  capitals, 
along  with  leaves  and  a  genre  theme — with 
the  Annunciation,  Nativity,  Flight  into 
Egypt,  and  Epiphany.  At  right  angles  to  it 
stands  a  good  stone  building  with  an  ogee 
doorway  running  up  into  eight  huge  arch 
stones,  and  a  pair  of  ogee  aj iinez  windows. 

But  indeed  everywhere  in  the  town  yet 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  W  A  Y 


stand  good  secular  buildings;  here  and 
there  on  a  ruin  is  stuck  a  great  coat  of 
arms,  and  superb  roofs  on  carved  consoles 
are  common.  Of  a  palace  in  the  calle 
Mayor  one  wing  is  late  Gothic  and  all  the 
rest  Renaissance:  on  another  elsewhere  are 
twisted  columns  and  under  the  root  still 
more  wonderful  consoles  with  pendants. 
The  town  has  shrunken;  fig-trees,  flowers, 
and  donkeys  flourish  inside  the  compass 
of  the  ancient  walls.  The  castle,  says 
Cean  Bermudez  in  his  Adiciones  to 
Llaguno,10  was  built  by  Miguel  de  Goyni 
for  Charles  the  Noble. 

There  are,  indeed,  plenty  of  dates  at 
hand  for  Sanguesa,  but  few  of  them  fit. 
For  S.  Mary  the  Royal  1131  is  too  early 
and  1330  too  late  to  stand  for  much.  By 
1232  the  King  of  Navarre  was  a  French¬ 
man,  Thibaut,  Count  of  Champagne  and 
Brie,  but  he  was  little  in  his  kingdom,  and 
the  French  style  of  the  church  is  not  that 
of  the  east.  When  another  French  line 
succeeded,  under  Charles  the  Noble,  the 
workmen  were  Spaniards  all.  Sanguesa 
not  only  commanded  the  best  workmen  in 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 


249 


Domestic 

architec¬ 

ture 


Dates 


250 

WAY  OF  S,  JAMES 

Masters  of 
the  works 

Navarre,  but  formed  masters  highly  ap¬ 
proved  .  In  1 4 1 o  the  masters  of  the  works  of 
Charles  III  were  Simon  Lopez  and  Miguel 
de  Goyni,  the  former  built  the  castle  in 
Puente  la  Reyna,  the  latter  that  of  San- 
guesa. 1 1  The  castle  of  Feliciana  at  Sos,over 
against  Sangiiesa  on  the  slope  of  Aragon, 
had  been  built  in  1130  by  Mestro  Jordan 
for  Ramiro  d  Monge.  In  1415  Miguel  de 
Poyni  (probably  the  same  as  that  Miguel 
above)  was  master  and  director  of  the 
royal  works  in  Sangiiesa,  building  mills 
and  other  edifices.  In  1419  Andres  de 
Soria  was  master  of  the  works  there. 12  In 
1594  Master  Juan  Verrueta,  of  Sangiiesa, 
took  up  and  finished  the  stalls  at  Huesca, 
on  the  death  of  Nicolas  de  Verastegui. 13 

The  citadel  opens  from  the  calle  Mayor, 
by  a  wide  loggia  dated  1560;  it  contains  a 
little  street  fringed  with  houses  and  then  a 
great  brown  building,  wide  and  low,  with 
towers  at  each  end.  The  townsfolk  are 
grave  and  courteous  as  those  of  Aragon:  a 
woman  alone  may  haunt  the  streets  for 
a  day  without  disturbing  their  dignity. 
The  children  are  courteous,  almost  like 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

251 

Italian  children;  they  eye  one  like  shy  but 
friendly  dogs,  and  make  a  wide  dfetour, 
and  shrink  away  as  one  turns  and  catches 
them  watching. 

Almost  Italian,  indeed,  is  the  fair  courtly 
air  of  the  little  pinkish  city,  the  clean, 
unfrequented  brown  streets,  the  forgotten 
palace  fronts  of  late  Gothic  or  early  Renais¬ 
sance,  the  sense  of  a  long  life  delicately 
lived  and  now  declining  softly,  not  ignobly. 
It  was  some  saint’s  day  that  called  for  a 
procession  about  the  town,  and  balconies 
were  hung  with  old  brocade  and  new,  with 
the  stuff  called  turkey  red,  and  grass-green 
bunting,  and  calicoes  striped  in  scarlet  and 
yellow  like  the  cigar  ribbons,  with  checked 
table  cloths  and  white  bed-spreads  for 
want  of  better.  The  procession  was  a 
scanty  thing,  that  came  out  of  the  cavernous 
church  with  yellow  flames  dancing  in  the 
darkness;  first  a  popping  of  rockets  in¬ 
visible  in  the  noon,  then  a  rush  of  old  men 
and  young  women  with  yellow  flickering 
candles  held  aslant,  promptly  to  blow  out; 
then  the  singing  men  in  albs  freshly 
gauffered  and  deeply  edged  with  lace,  their 

Life  deli¬ 
cately 
lived 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

252 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  kind  of 

scarlet 

pink 

harsh  antiphon  rising  up  and  again  lost, 
in  the  windings  of  the  streets,  like  the 
sound  of  surf  to  men  inland;  then  incense 
blue  in  the  sunlight;  finally  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  under  a  canopy,  set  in  a  bouquet 
of  such  vestments  that  my  eyes  drew  my 
feet  about  the  entire  city  and  back  again 
till  the  black  church  doorway  had  swal¬ 
lowed  up  the  singing  men  and  the  extin¬ 
guished  candles  and  the  sanctimonious  old 
women  and  the  pitiful  old  men,  the  starched 
little  girls  and  the  bigger  girls  in  white 
cotton  gloves.  They  were  not  so  old,  those 
vestments,  nor  embroidered,  nor  excessively 
rich,  but  they  were  of  a  kind  of  scarlet 
pink  like  the  sound  of  flutes  and  bassoons 
and  hautboys,  that  one  could  not  have 
enough  of.  I  sucked  it  up  thirstily:  I 
could  have  knelt  on  the  cobblestones  to 
keep  it  longer,  and  the  bored  antiphon  of 
the  singing  men,  the  hiss  of  the  inane 
rockets,  the  scrupulous  hangings  along  the 
appointed  streets  were  all  undertone,  the 
mere  accompaniment  to  the  colour  of  that 
obbligato. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

253 

IV 

PAMPELUNA 

En  Parts  esta  dona  Alda 
la  esposa  de  don  Roldan; 
trescientas  damas  con  ella 
para  la  acompanar: 

Todas  visten  un  vestido, 
todas  calzan  un  calzar, 
todas  comen  d  una  mesa, 
todas  comian  de  un  pan.... 

Las  ciento  hilaban  oro, 
las  ciento  tejen  cendal, 
las  ciento  tartan  instru- 
mentos 

para  dona  Alda  holgar. 

—Romance, 

There  were  processions  in  Pampeluna 
early  every  morning,  and  at  any  hour  of 
the  day  one  would  hear  the  call  of  pipe  and 
tabor  and  then  the  running  of  countless 
little  feet,  and  suddenly  about  one  surged 

I  a  skurrying  hundred  or  so  of  panting  little 

AND  MONOGRAPHS . 

I 

1 

✓ 


254 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Early 
statues  in 
thecloister 

are  sculptural.  Of  three  small  statues, 
built  up  under  an  arch  in  the  south  clois¬ 
ter,  two  at  least  belong  to  Pelayo’s 
work:  S.  Paul  (or  a  prophet)  with  sword 
and  scroll,  and  the  Saviour,  seated,  with 
a  book.  The  third,  a  queen,  stands  un¬ 
der  a  horse-shoe  arch.  To  Peter  Cebrian’s 
work,  perhaps,  or  to  the  commencement 
of  Bishop  Manrique’s,  belong  two  rather 
small  and  very  precious  figures  of  marble 
in  the  Museum  of  S.  Marcos:  the  Ma- 

in  the 
Museum 

donna  and  the  Saviour,  both  crowned 
with  a  mere  brow-band  set  with  gems. 
Rather  shorter  in  their  proportions,  the 
forms  are  very  much  simplified  in  the  fig¬ 
ure  of  Christ,  with  better  definition  in  the 
Madonna’s,  and  the  drapery  treated  with 
freedom  and  delicacy.  She  holds  the  Child 
on  her  left  arm  and  He  plays  with  the  end 
of  her  veil,  a  motive  Duccio  loved  though 
he  treated  it  very  differently.  The  Saviour 
stands  in  a  long  and  narrow  mandorla, 
about  the  tips  of  which  cluster  the  Evan¬ 
gelical  beasts:  His  tunic  is  edged  around  the 
throat  and  down  the  front  with  a  rather 
simple  pattern,  and  His  book  is  bound  pre- 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

255 

cisely  like  those  of  S.  Peter  and  S.  James  on 
the  north  transepts.  This  mandorla  may 
have  been  influenced  by  the  figure  at  Lugo, 
c.  1177.  A  little  pair  of  figures  standing 
among  other  scraps  in  the  cathedral  cloister, 
is  contemporary  with  these :  they  belong  all 
to  the  very  dawn  of  the  thirteenth  century 
or  the  end  of  the  twelfth  and  show  a  con¬ 
scious  and  perfect  art,  exquisite  in  its  sensi¬ 
bility  and  reticence,  en  sotileza. 

The  south  portal  is  fairest.  In  the 
tympanum  above  the  central  door  Christ 

South 

sits  enthroned  amid  the  four  creatures 

portal 

and  beyond  them  the  Evangelists  write  at 
desks.  It  is,  I  need  hardly  say,  a  sign  that 
work  is  provincial,  and  workmen  borrow¬ 
ing  an  idea,  that  the  Evangelists  should 
figure  thus  twice  over  in  a  single  composi¬ 
tion.  There  is  a  curious  reminiscence 
of  Conques  in  the  bending  angels  above. 
The  lintel  proper  is  carved  all  over  with 

The  Way 

leafage  like  that  in  the  main  door  at  the 
west.  This  lovely  though  late-seeming 
motive  occurs  I  believe  at  Noyon,  and  on 
the  Way  into  Spain  at  Bordeaux  in  the 
side  portal  of  S.  Seurin,  dated  1260,  and  at 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

256 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Feria 

pressure  of  the  combined  recommendations 
of  the  Manager  and  Roque,  dislodged  three 
men  just  making  an  evening  toilet  with 
plenty  of  hair  tonic  and  clean  towels,  and 
gave  us  a  room  just  as  wide  as  the  window, 
looking  on  a  fairly  wide  street.  We  did 
not,  in  truth,  sleep  much,  nobody  did; 
but  we  went  to  bed  regularly,  which  few 
did.  The  meals  went  on  without  per¬ 
ceptible  interval,  for  the  three  dislodged 
gentlemen  and  many  more  were  accommo¬ 
dated  in  Roque’s  and  other  adjoining 
niches,  whence  they  came  in  for  endless 
luncheons  and  dinners.  I  think  nearly  all 
the  other  people  at  table  were  men,  and 
they  all  looked  like  commis-voyageurs 
and  their  patrons,  except  one  ecclesiastic, 

The  Abb6 

a  comely  young  abbe,  grey-haired  and 
spoiled  as  a  woman.  He  would  stand  in 
the  doorway  to  be  admired,  and  then  ad¬ 
vance  se  dandinant,  swinging  his  hips  and 
petticoats.  His  voice  and  smile  and  hands 
were  soft,  and  he  struck  one  as  somehow 
improper,  even  before  the  night  he  stood 
longer  than  usual  in  the  doorway  and  one 
discovered  that  he  was  dressed  in  a  grey 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

257 

sack  suit.  The  civilian  dress  was  very 
becoming:  “Perhaps,”  said  a  priest  to 
whom  we  related  this  one  time,  “  he  was  a 
military  chaplain;  they  allow  themselves 
great  liberties!”  At  any  rate,  there  he 
stood,  thus  he  dined;  the  thing  is  incredible 
but  it  happened.  In  the  memory  of  that 
smiling  corrupt  face  I  have  forgotten  every¬ 
thing  about  the  house  of  La  Francesa 
except  the  poor  fat  francesa  and  her 
sleepless  daughters  and  the  darkness  of 
the  kitchen  where  something  always  was 
going  on. 

In  the  streets  something  was  always  go¬ 
ing  on  too:  first  the  procession  to  S.  Firmin, 
and  a  solemn  mass  at  the  Cathedral 
with  an  orchestra  of  fiddles  and  other  viols ; 
then  a  concert  of  military  music  for  which 
a  whole  street  served  as  salon  de  musique, 
penny  chairs  ranged  up  the  steep  ascent 
and  the  band  at  the  top.  After  luncheon 
the  bull-fight  lasted  from  two  to  nearly 
six,  and  after  dinner  there  was  the  play. 
But  after  the  bull-fight  and  before  dinner 
there  happened,  in  the  Paseo,  the  prettiest 
thing  we  have  ever  seen  in  any  land  or 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

258 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Bath  and 

S.  Cloud 

city, — the  Promenade.  The  very  best  at 
Bath  or  at  S.  Cloud  cannot  have  shown 
anything  like  such  beauty.  For  the  S.  Fir- 
min,  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  Navarre 
come  in,  the  county  families.  The  level 
Pasco  is  not  more  than  half  a  mile  long, 
from  the  central  square  to  the  city  gate, 
and  where  the  penny  chairs  were  ranged 
in  a  double  row  on  either  side  the  central 
walk  of  trodden  earth,  the  families  settled 
themselves  for  talk,  pulled  up  into  knots, 
spread  out  into  crescents.  The  elders  had 
a  year  of  news  to  give  and  hear;  the  girls 
walked  up  and  down  with  their  brothers  or 
cousins,  and  of  course  brother  and  sister 
could  walk  with  another  brother  and 
sister.  The  men  were  slender-waisted, 

Watteau 

animated, 

fragrant. 

and 

troubling 

distinguished,  tall  enough,  with  a  charm¬ 
ing  carriage  and  beautiful  hands.  The 
loveliness  of  the  women  was  like  a  Watteau 
animated,  fragrant,  and  troubling.  There 
were  no  hats,  and, few  of  the  little  voilettes 
of  Chantilly  that  have  grown  so  common, 
but  golden  Spanish  blonde  and  silken 
Spanish  lace;  the  sumptuous  state  of 
white  mantillas,  the  various  grace  of  black 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

259 

mantillas,  the  courtly  kind  that  lies  in  a 
deep  ruffle  on  the  shoulders,  the  delicious 
chenille  kind  that  is  daring,  the  heavy- 
worked  kind  that  is  romantic.  Over  one 
arm  lay  a  folded  shawl,  of  crepe  oj:  soft  silk 
or  embroidered  in  brilliant  flowers;  in  one 
hand  a  folded  fan.  The  women  were  very 
lovely,  very  well  dressed,  very  well  bred, 
but  their  loveliness  and  their  breeding  and 
their  dress  found  its  own  right  expression 
in  their  own  traditional  attributes,  fan, 
shawl,  and  mantilla. 

The  mantilla  is  not  easy  to  wear,  and  it 
takes  an  hour  to  put  on,  and  a  paper  of 
pins;  the  hair  must  be  dressed  high  and 
very  firmly;  the  tall  comb  will  lend  further' 
height  and  stability,  then  every  fold  of  the 
lace  is  separately  modified  and  securely 
pinned  with  an  infinity  of  black  pins.  It 
exacts,  moreover,  great  beauty  of  feature, 
great  refinement.  Rich  contours  and  soft 
flesh  matter  not  at  all,  but  the  head  must 
have  beauty  of  modelling,  and  have  a  noble 
bony  structure,  and  contours  attained  by 
breeding  through  hundreds  of  generations. 
The  mantilla,  the  fan,  the  shawl:  the 

Mantilla 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

to 

O' 

o 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Spanish  figure  is  the  finest  in  the  world; 
the  carriage  and  walk  is  like  Hers  whom 

and  fan  ... 

Aneas  watched  through  the  trees  and 

The 

beauty 

knew  Her  by  it,  for  nothing  else  could 
move  so  divinely.  Shawl,  mantilla,  and 
fan:  the  Spanish  hand  is  a  miracle,  a  non¬ 
pareil  of  beauty.  For  an  hour  and  a  half 
every  evening  the  nobility  of  Navarre 
walked  in  beauty  there,  in  rustling  and 
murmuring  of  silk,  and  voices,  and  dark 
leafage;  warm  puffs  of  perfume  through  a 
night  wind  blowing  out  of  dark  and  moun¬ 
tains;  a  luminous  dust  filling  all  the  space, 
above  which  hung  a  pale  sky  infinitely 

and  the 

remote. 

night 

Recalling  the  S.  Firmin,  I  recall  only  this 

space,  glowing,  moving,  scented,  mur¬ 
murous,  like  a  syringa  bush  on  a  night  of 
fireflies.  The  city  I  knew  already,  having 
stayed  there  once  in  January  when  the 
sign  of  S.  Julian  of  the  North  was  augury 
of  hospitality  and  afforded  for  the  sunless 
hours  a  stove  in  the  hotel  dining-room.  Of 
those  long  hours  in  a  Spanish  winter,  after 
dark  and  before  dinner,  how  by  the  natives 
they  may  be  passed  least  intolerably, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

261 

something  shall  be  said  later.  For  a 
woman  alone,  they  are  hard.  She  has 
been  out  seeing  things  while  the  daylight- 
lasted  and  is  honestly  tired;  moreover, 
most  churches  close  at  nightfall  and  the 
rest  have  nothing  by  any  chance  worth 
seeing  even  were  they  not  wrapped  in  a 
midnight  of  their  own,  just  starred  with 
votive  candles.  She  cannot  walk  up  and 
down  the  pavement,  in  the  light  of  shop 
windows,  as  men  are  doing.  She  goes 

A  woman 
alone 

unless  i 

back  to  her  room  at  the  hotel.  There  she 

stout  and  j 

cannot  go  to  bed  to  keep  warm,  for 
dinner  is  still  three  hours  away ;  she  makes 
her  tea,  then  fills  a  rubber  hot-water- 
bottle,  and  wrapping  it  and  herself  in  a  rug 
lies  down  under  a  faint  electric  bulb  to 

grey  .  .  . 

read  and  shiver  and  not  dare  to  doze.  At 
S.  Julian  of  the  North,  to  the  discomposure 
of  the  waiters,  I  "was  able  to  carry  the  Chan¬ 
son  de  Roland  into  the  dining-room,  and 
after  the  good  American  fashion  to  put  my 

The  day’s 

feet  on  the  stove  and  digest  in  comfort  the 
day’s  disillusions. 

To  look  for  Charlemagne  I  had  gone  to 
Pampeluna  and  I  had  found  the  eighteenth 

disillusions 

AND  MONOGRAPHS- 

I 

j 

262 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

The 

eighteenth 

century 

century,  a  misadventure  always  discon¬ 
certing.  The  Ayuntamiento  was  rather 
charming  with  columns  and  entablatures, 
pediments  and  inverted  consoles,  and 
wrought  iron  balconies.  The  Plaza  de  la 
Constitution,  like  that  in  front  of  the  cathe¬ 
dral,  was  Greco-Roman  in  its  intentions, 
but  vaguely  picturesque  in  its  arcaded  side¬ 
walks,  its  individual  balconies,  its  terraces 
and  doors  opening  upon  them,  up  among 
the  slated  roofs.  The  cathedral  was  flat¬ 
headed:  now  a  Gothic  building  wants  a 
gable  roof,  and  flying  buttresses,  and 
pinnacles  that  function.  The  other  ancient 
churches,  S.  Cernin  and  S.  Nicolas,  were 
shockingly  restored.  And  .  .  .  and  .  .  . 
a  woman  alone  will  meet,  from  time  to 
time,  a  little  personal  annoyance,  even 
from  priests,  that  however  inevitable,  yet 
leaves  her  hurt. 

“  .  .  .  at 

noon  upon 
the  peak  of 
Heaven. 

If  Charlemagne  is  not  at  Pampeluna,  yet 
the  Pyrenees  are  there;  it  is  possible  to 
walk  almost  around  the  town,  in  the  crys¬ 
talline  noon,  on  turfy  ramparts  and 
crumbling  walls,  and  look  off  to  azure 
luminous  heights  and  tender  vaporous 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

T  H  E  W  A  Y 

2f>3  ; 

foldings  till  it  is  as  if  one  should  walk  in 
the  very  heart  of  a  star  sapphire. 

The  old  cathedral  of  Pampeluna  was 
fair  as  a  moon  even  among  fair  churches. 

It  was  a  hundred  years  in  building  and 

Pulchra  til 

stood  for  less  than  twice  that  time :  founded 
by  Sancho  el  Mayor  who  was  a  wise  man 
and  a  canny.  He  had  introduced  the  rule 
of  Cluny  into  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena;  he  was 
about  to  do  the  same  at  S.  Salvador  de 
Leyre,  when  the  abbot  and  his  friends 
among  the  nobility,  by  way  of  diversion, 
urged  in  assembled  Cortes  the  more  im¬ 
mediate  need  of  restoring  the  cathedral. 
“Certainty,  since  you  recommend  it,”  said 
the  king,  “  and  to  that  important  end  we  will 

luna  j 

1 

apply,  amongst  other  revenues,  those  of 
S.  Salvador.”  This  was  in.  1023.  A  great  part 

of  the  building,  however,  was  done  under 

Peter  of 

Bishop  Peter  of  Roda,  who  filled  the  See  as 
late  as  1115,  and  coming  himself  from  near 
Toulouse,  knew  whither  to  send  for  work¬ 
men.  He  also  substituted  for  the  monks 
who  had  served  the  church  till  then,  canons 
regular  of  S.  Augustine,  whose  rule  of  life  in 
common  was  to  leave  its  mark  upon  the  fab- 

Roda 

1  | 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

264 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

French 

coadjutors 

ric  of  the  second  church.  In  this  action  he 
had  the  advice  of  the  abbot  Tomeros,  the 
prior  of  S.  Sernin  of  Toulouse,  the  arch¬ 
bishop  of  Auch,  and  others.  His  successor, 
Bishop  William,  was  a  great  fighter,  who 
served  el  Balallador,  his  king,  on  many  a 
field;  Bishop  Sancho  de  Larrosa,  who  con¬ 
secrated  it,  knew  how  to  get  rich  gifts;1 
but  certainly  we  may  leave  to  Bishop  Peter 
and  his  craftsmen  the  glory  of  what  survives 
from  the  portal  of  1124  or  a  cloister  adja¬ 
cent,  eight  lovely  capitals  built  up  in  a 
niche  of  the  present  cloister.  The  detail  is 
richer  and  freer  than  any  now  in  the  mu¬ 
seum  at  Toulouse,  the  style  is  identical. 

The  church  and  quarter  of  S.  Cernin, 
contemporary  with  this  work,  form  another 
link  with  Toulouse.  Just  about  this  time 
Alfonso  cl  Balallador,  in  a  document  given 
at  Atafalla  (Tafalla)  in  September  of  1129, 
had  sent  to  repeople  the  burg  of  S.  Cernin, 
destroyed  some  time  before.  S.  Cernin 
or  Serninus,  S.  Saturninus,  was  Bishop  of 
Toulouse,  and  some  historians  will  have  it 
that  the  francos  to  whom  the  king  gave 
privileges  were  not  merely  free  men  but 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

265 

Frenchmen,  in  particular  of  Cahors,  ex¬ 
pelled  by  Philip,  or  possibly  Albigensian 
refugees.  Now  the  Cahorsines,  we  know, 
gave  a  pope  to  Rome  and  money  lenders  to 
Dante  and  Europe;  there  is  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  have  settled  in  the  suburb 
of  a  royal  capital,  under  a  French  bishop’s 
protection.  Whosoever  they  were,  the 
king  conceded  to  the  new  population  of  the 
plain  of  S.  Saturnine  of  Irunia,  amongst 
other  rights,  the  fuero  of  Jaca  in  respect  of 
the  departments  of  Justice  and  the  Treas¬ 
ury,  and  forbade  any  Navarrese  noble  or 
cleric  to  settle  there;  the  ground  about 
might  not  be  built  upon ;  the  quarters  over¬ 
looking  it  might  not  build  towers  or  other¬ 
wise  domineer  or  menace;  the  citizens 
were  to  elect  three  candidates  of  their  own 
from  whom  the  Bishop  must  select  an  al¬ 
calde,  and  this  burg  alone  might  sell  wine 
or  bread  to  pilgrims. 

S.  Cernin  is  the  oldest  Gothic  church  in 
Navarre,  and  belongs  to  the  second  half 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  This  dictum  of 
Madrazo,  confirmed  by  Lamperez, 2  leaves 
one  to  wonder  into  how  late  an  age  may 

Qui  vulgar - 
iter  Caorci- 
ni  dicunlur 

“AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

266 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

A  rare  plan 

come  down  all  the  late-Romanesque  and 
Transitional  building.  In  the  curious  plan 
of  the  original  part  of  this  church,  occurs 
an  ingenious  modification  of  a  French 
motive,  rather  rare,  but  developed  at 
Estella  six  leagues  away  on  the  same 
Camino  [ranees,  the  three  chapels  opening 
directly  from  the  apse  without  an  ambula¬ 
tory  intervening,  as  at  Souillac  and  Cahors. 
At  Souillac  and  Estella  the  apsidioles  arc 
treated  as  mere  niches  and  the  central  apse 
is  the  main  thing:  at  Cahors  the  choir  is  so 
railed  round,  in  the  central  apse,  as  to 
leave  a  procession  path  and  access  to  the 
chapels:  here  at  S.  Cernin  the  chapels  are 
the  main  matter  and  the  high  altar  is 
placed  in  the  central  one.  The  west  door 
of  this  church  has  been  quite  spoiled  but 
there  are  some  traces  of  a  porch  or  an  ar¬ 
cade  that  would  have  harboured  tombs. 
The  north  door  is  sheltered  by  a  porch  of 
five  bays  stretching  along  the  whole  north 
side  that,  like  those  of  Ripolland  S.  Miguel 
of  Estella,  is  later  than  the  portal  itself 
but  not  so  much  later.  It  contains  a  few 
tombs  or  traces  of  them.  Outside,  at  the 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


26  7 


entrance,  S.  Saturninus  stands  upon  the 
bull  of  his  martyrdom  and  his  pendant  is 
S.  James  with  a  kneeling  pilgrim,  in  long 
gown,  skin  rain-coat,  wallet  and  staff. 

The  door  itself,  though  at  first  glance  it 
looks  like  much  fourteenth -century  work 
in  Navarre,  on  examination  appears  finer 
by  far,  with  a  very  noble  distribution  and 
subordination,  among  the  multiplied  mould¬ 
ings  of  jamb  and  archivolt,  into  major  and 
minor  systems.  The  six  capitals  on  either 
side  correspond  to  a  strong  projection  and 
their  re-entrant  angles  to  pronounced  hol¬ 
lows.  In  the  tympanum  sits  Christ  as 
Judge,  between  SS.  Mary  and  John,  and  a 
monk  in  the  right-hand  comer  interceding : 
an  angel  in  the  corresponding  angle  tram- 
pets  to  Judgement.  The  lintel,  or  lower 
part  of  the  tympanum,  is  occupied  by  an 
arcade  of  eight  cusped  and  pointed  arches 
grouped  into  pairs  by  shafts ;  the  spandrels 
between  them  are  occupied  by  tiny  angels. 
In  the  arcade  the  dead  are  (1)  rising  from 
their  tombs,  (2)  coming  to  Judgement,  and 
(3)  worshipping  their  Redeemer;  (4)  others, 
agonized,  led  off  to  hell  and  boiled  in  a  pot. 


Figured 
•on  p.  179 


Tuba 

mirum 

spargens 

sonum 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


268 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Symbolism 

The  historied  capitals  begin,  on  the  left, 
with  a  larger  group  under  the  boss  that 
terminates  the  dripstone;  it  represents 
the  Annunciation,  and  the  series  continues 
with  the  Visitation,  Nativity,  Presentation, 
etc.,  down  to  the  Flight  into  Egypt,  the 
Epiphany  figuring  on  the  projection  which 
sustains  the  lintel.  On  the  other  side,  the 
largest,  outermost  scene  is  the  Harrowing  of 
Hell,  thence  (reading  inward)  the  history  of 
Palm  Sunday  in  great  detail,  with  Zaccheus 
in  the  tree,  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  crowded 
and  a  man  coming  out  of  the  gate ;  the  Last 
Supper,  the  Agony  in  the  Garden,  the  Way 
to  Calvary,  Deposition,  Maries  at  the 
Tomb,  and  Noli  Me  T angere  and,  upon  the 
corbel  that  sustains  the  lintel,  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion.  In  the  peak  of  the  arch  is  set  a 
series  of  isolated  figures:  Christ  crowned, 
with  a  book,  the  Eternal  Father  holding  a 
crucifix,  the  Dove  hovering  above,  and  the 
risen  Christ.  Finally,  the  hood  moulding 
swirls  up  into  a  glorious  finial  that  sup¬ 
ports  a  Calvary,  the  Crucified  between 
SS.  Mary  and  John. 

In  all  this  figure  sculpture  the  elements 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

269 

and  origins  are  mingled.  The  iconography 
of  the  capitals  is  French — is  French  of 
France — but  the  symbolism  is  original  and 
exquisite  in  its  arrangement  of  correspond¬ 
ences,  bringing  the  Epiphany,  the  Mani¬ 
festation  of  God’s  Humanity,  into  relation 
with  the  Resurrection,  the  Manifestation 
of  His  Divinity;  and,  in  the  same  way,  the 
Annunciation  to  Mary  that  the  close  of 
Eve’s  long  expectation  was  at  hand,  into 
relation  with  the  Apparition  of  the  King  of 
Glory  in  Limbo,  to  take  up  with  Him  the 
spirits  in  prison.  The  main  figures  of  the 
tympanum  are  of  the  later  cathedral  tradi¬ 
tion.  The  little  figures  stuck  against  the 
mouldings,  with  the  structural  irrelevance 
that  nobody  could  break  a  Spaniard  of, 
are  Spanish  motives,  perhaps:  they  left 
their  mark  on  churches  in  Navarre  and 
Navarrese  painters  as  well. 

The  difference  of  privilege  in  the  different 
quarters  of  the  town,  for  a  while  adjusted 
by  Sancho  el  Mayor  early  in  the  eleventh 
century,  led  to  a  great  war  in  the  thirteenth 
at  the  end  of  which  the  French  took  and 
burned  it,  1277;  but  though  the  cathedral 

arid 

signifi¬ 

cance 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

270 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  New 
Cathedral 

was  sacked  the  fabric  escaped.  Again  in 
1422  Charles  the  Noble  gave  to  the  city  the 
so-called  act  of  Union,  which  finally  reduced 
the  surviving  three-quarters  under  a  single 
civil  government.  But  the  great  gift  of 
this  king  was  the  new  cathedral  of  French 
Gothic.  In  1390,  the  very  year  of  his 
coronation,  on  the  first  of  July,  the  greater 
part  of  the  cathedral  fell  in  sudden  ruin, 
wrecking  the  choir  and  most  of  the  rest, 
but  without  loss  of  life.  The  west  front 
escaped,  for  Moret’s  continuator  writes  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  de  lo  antiguo  solo 
quedd  la  pnerta  del  frontispicio,  que  ahora 
vemos. 3  The  king,  it  is  said,  had  already 
begun  some  works  within,  both  to  beautify 
and  to  admit  light:  it  is  easy  to  conjecture 
injury  to  vital  parts  of  the  strong  old  Ro¬ 
manesque,  with  its  lofty  barrel  vaults  light¬ 
ed  only  from  the  aisles,  now  out  of  date 
and  ill-understood;  at  any  rate  in  1397  the 
reconstruction  was  begun.  Much  beautiful 
building  had  been  commenced  already, 
how  much  it  is  hard  to  say,  by  Bishop 
Amald  of  Barbazan,  1317-1355:  a  glorious 
chapter-room,  and  a  cloister  of  which  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

271 

east  and  north  wings  were  finished  and 
escaped  destruction:  at  their  angle,  along 
with  the  doorway  into  the  south  transept, 
and  three  precious  monuments  of  the  thir¬ 
teenth  century,  the  Epiphany  of  Jacques 
Peyrut  and  the  tomb  of  the  Infants  of 
Luna.  The  south  and  west  sides  of  the 

French 

sculptor 

cloister  belong  to  the  fifteenth  century, 
with  three  other  doors  hardly  less  beautiful: 
that  into  the  Refectory,  that  close  at  hand 
but  at  right  angles  to  it,  which  leads  into  a 
court  or  garden,  and  that  called  la  Preciosa. 

The  cathedral,  says  M.  Bertaux,4  was 
begun  under  a  French  prince,  Philip  of 
Evreux  by  a  French  bishop,  Amald  of 

Barbazan,  and  finished  at  the  end  of  the 
century  under  a  French  king,  Charles  the 
Noble,  who  was  born  at  Nantes  and  edu¬ 
cated  at  Paris.  After  this  there  is  nothing 
to  find  out  about  the  cathedral,  it  is  simply 
all  French;  but  not  French  of  Paris,  be  it 
remarked.  The  real  comparisons  must  be 
made  with  the  south,  Bayonne,  for  instance : 
and  the  real  sources  of  the  style  lie  often 
not  in  the  Royal  Domain. 

prince 

Against  the  door  of  the  south  transept 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

2  72 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Assumpla 
est  Maria 

which,  like  the  cathedral  itself,  is  dedi¬ 
cated  to  the  Assumption,  stands  a  grave 
and  queenly  Madonna,  rather  Spanish  of 
face,  offering  to  her  divine  Son  the  Book. 
In  the  jamb  and  archivolts  are  the  Works 
of  Mercy,  the  Strong  Women  of  Scripture, 
angels  making  music,  and  others  of  the 
company  of  heaven  bearing  an  antiphon 
on  a  scroll,  a  cadence  from  the  Song  of 
Songs:  “Who  is  this  that  cometh  up 
from  the  Wilderness  leaning  upon  her  Be¬ 
loved?  Assumpta  est.  Maria  in  Coelum." 
The  symbolism  here,  and  in  the  figures  of 
Church  and  Synagogue  at  the  Refectory 
door,  is  significant  in  Spain,  where  such  is 
rare.  The  tympanum,  greatly  admired,  is 
just  a  little  absurd:  of  the  early  fifteenth 
century,  it  represents  the  Dormition  in  the 
midst  of  a  thick  crowd,  angels  tiptoe  and 
pushing  to  look  on,  apostles  wiping  their 
eyes  on  the  sheet,  on  their  clothes,  or  a 
napkin,  and  a  swarm  of  little  angels  buzz¬ 
ing  above  with  a  napkin  for  the  little  soul 
that,  dressed  as  for  a  birthday,  is  held  up 
by  a  leaning  Christ  with  curled  hair  and 
beard:  Franco-Flemish,  pronounces  M. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


273 


Bertaux, s  and  whatever  he  means  by  that 
is  probably  the  truth :  provincial,  that  is  to 
say.  It  looks  almost  as  if  copied  from 
embroidery,  rather  than  developed  in  a 
strong  iconographic  tradition. 

The  door  called  la  Preciosa  comes  next 
perhaps  in  date  to  this  one,  flanked  by  SS. 
Mary  and  Gabriel  on  elaborate  panelled 
bases  under  canopies.  The  three  bands 
of  the  tympanum  show  scenes  from,  the 
later  life  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  culminating 
in  her  Entombment,  at  which  assists  an 
admirable  group  of  knights.  The  five 
little  conversation-pieces  in  the  lowest 
register  suggest,  in  their  arrangement,  con¬ 
temporary  French  ivories,  with  a  notable  dif¬ 
ference, —the  number  of  persons  engaged. 
One  great  beauty  of  the  ivories  is  the 
simplification,  enforced,  the  reduction  of 
every  action  to  its  fewest  figures :  but  here 
is  no  syncopation,  everything,  rather, 
expanded  and  “practicable.”  When  the 
Blessed  Virgin  addresses  the  apostles  before 
her  death  you  count  the  twelve  of  them; 
their  miraculous  arrival  at  Jerusalem,  like 
that  of  S.  Michael  in  the  row  below,  occurs 

AND  MONOGRAPHS. 


La  Preciosa 


274 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

So  the 
Cursor  o' 
the  World 

in  the  foldings  of  a  cloud  with  crinkled 
edges.  I  take  it  that  the  practice  of 
miracle  plays  must  account  for  this  treat¬ 
ment,  as  it  will  for  that  of  the  Crucifixion 
in  the  north-west  corner,  where  the  groups 
are  smaller  but  the  action  more  dramatic. 

There,  in  the  upper  range,  you  have,  first, 
the  three  Maries,  leaning  upon  each  other 
in  a  lovely  and  apparently  traditional 
group,  fair  as  the  three  Graces;  then  the 
Madonna  sustained  by  S.  John.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  Cross  Longinus  testifies 
with  a  fine  gesture,  and  two  soldiers  and  a 
Jew  expressively  marvel.  As  in  the  early 
painting  preserved  in  the  inner  sacristy,  the 
Tree  of  the  Cross  is  a  real  tree,  gnarled  and 
barky,  in  accordance  with  a  legend  that 
the  Cross  itself  flourished  with  leaf  and 
bark  from  noon  to  compline  on  the  day  of 
the  Crucifixion. 6  Noli  Me  T anger e  and 
the  meeting  of  S.  Peter  with  the  Magdalen 
are  studied  stage  tableaux.  In  the  lowest 
range  the  jaws  of  hell  are  a  machine,  and 
the  Sepulchre  a  sarcophagus  large  enough 
to  hold  a  man  or  two.  One  curious  detail 
not  to  be  passed  over  is  the  likeness  of  this 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

275 

to  the  Easter  Sepulchre  which  still  sur¬ 
vives  in  some  English  churches,  for  in¬ 
stance,  at  Lincoln,  and  the  soldiers  tucked 
up  to  sleep  under  the  three  arcades  that 
sustain  it. 

The  door  into  the  Refectory,  flanked  by 
Church  and  Synagogue  that  suggest  Stras- 
burg  much  sooner  than  Leon,  depicts, 
above,  the  Last  Supper  and  then  the  Entry 
into  Jerusalem.  This  supper  table,  with 
its  dishes  of  fish,  its  flat  loaves,  its  goblets 
and  ewers,  recalls  the  enchanting  panel 
painting  of  Solsona,  precious  for  the 
examples  it  affords  of  Hispano-Moresque 
pottery.  The  original  sculptural  source  of 
this  Cena  is  to  be  looked  for  at  S.  Gilles  in 
Provence.  In  the  lunette  above,  both  the 
crowd  and  the  tree  are  treated  decoratively ; 
the  fortified  city  of  Jerusalem  with  her 
towers,  her  bulwarks,  betrays  how  fair 
was  Pampeluna  under  Charles  III,  ntuy 
noble  y  muy  leal.  There  is  more  than  a 
hint  of  the  Renaissance  in  this  tympanum; 
though  different,  it  should  be  about  con¬ 
temporary  with  the  door  of  the  Assunta. 
Inside  the  Refectory,  the  base  of  the  lec- 

Cena  of 
Solsona 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

276 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Hue  and 
Cry  after 
the 

Unicorn 

tor’s  pulpit  is  carved  with  the  Hue  and 
Cry  after  the  Unicom,  with  a  verve  highly 
stimulating  but  quite  secular,  and  the 
capitals  are  of  the  same  kind.  A  shallow 
niche  encloses,  under  the  Pelican  in  her 
piety,  two  viol  players,  a  centaur  with  bag¬ 
pipe,  a  man  rending  a  lion,  a  lion  rending 
a  man,  and  all  the  familiar  and  secular 
imagery  which  is  at  its  best  in  the  cloister 
of  Leon. 

La  Barba - 

zana 

Lastly,  against  the  delicate  mouldings  of 
la  Barbazana,  the  chapel  of  Bishop  Amald 
where  yet  he  lies,  someone  fashioned  statues 
of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  resting  them  on 
figured  bases  in  the  same  style  as  the  carv¬ 
ings  in  the  Refectory.  These  great  figures 
of  the  apostles  are  rather  fine,  and  belong 
to  Spanish  art  well  along;  they  are  later 
by  a  century  than  the  jamb-figures  of  la 
Preciosa.  They  are  later  by  two  genera¬ 
tions  than  the  Epiphany  on  the  same  wall, 
which  is  signed  “Jacques  Peyrut  fist  ceste 
istoyre.” 7  The  figures  of  the  two  standing 
kings  are  truly  Gothic  still  in  feeling,  and 
the  grand  Madonna  and  kneeling  first  king 
may  indeed  suggest  work  that  began  their 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

277 

century  at  Dijon,  but  in  no  other  sense 
than  would  any  dawning  Renaissance. 
The  asp  and  basilisk  coil  under  her  feet 
as  at  Amiens.  Close  to  this  signed  work, 
not,  alas,  dated,  is  the  tomb  of  the  Infants 
of  Luna.  In  the  niche  above,  on  either 
side  the  Crucified  stand  three  little  figures 
as  Burgundian  as  possible.  D.  Lionel  of 
Navarre  was  a  bastard  son  of  Charles/the 
Bad,  a  splendid  and  romantic  figure,  dead 
in  the  flower  of  youth.  He  married  Doha 
Elf  a  de  Luna  and  died  in  14x3.* 

Of  slightly  earlier  date,  indeed,  is  the 
tomb  that  Janin  Lome  of  Toumai  made 
for  Charles  the  Good,  he  being  yet  alive, 
in  1416.  Its  place,  formerly  in  the  Coro,  is 
now  in  the  ancient  kitchen  of  the  chapter. 
The  contract  still  exists  by  which  he  was 
to  have  stone  para  las  obras  et  ymaginies 
de  las  sepulturas  del  Rey  nueslro  Seynor  el 
bien  assi  del  Rey  su  padre,  &  qui  Dios 
perdone,  que  ha  J echo  et  entiende  fazer  el 
dido  John  Lome  en  la  iglesia  de  S.  Maria 
de  Pamplona .9  This  has  twenty-eight 
little  weepers  under  canopies  around  the 
base,  and  the  effigies  of  King  and  Queen 

The 

Infants  of 
Luna 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

2j8 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

An  altar- 
tomb 

recumbent  under  other  canopies,  on  the 
black  slab  atop.  The  flat  head  of  those 
canopies  is  used  for  an  inscription,  easy  to 
read  by  walking  around  the  monument; 
against  the  feet  are  the  queen’s  greyhounds 
and  the  king’s  mastiff:  otherwise,  as  on  the 
tombs  at  S.  Denis,  the  drapery  lies  as  if  the 
statues  were  erect.  Of  the  other  tomb,  in¬ 
tended  for  Charles  II,  nothing  seems  to  be 
known,  but  I  found  in  one  of  the  eastern 
chapels  an  altar  built  above  and  around 
what  seemed  to  be  a  tomb  with  a  few  such 
weepers  under  canopies:  these  may  have 
been  designed  for  that. 

It  is  hard  to  see  just  why,  when  Spanish 
work  for  once  was  in  direct  contact  with 
the  Royal  Domain,  there  should  be  little  to 
betray  the  characteristic  style  of  the  Isle  of 
France.  Champagne,  Burgundy,  and  the 
Flemish  border  are  what  can  be  identified 
— the  only  deduction  is  that  there  is  no  d 
priori  in  archaeology  and  that  you  can 
barely  trust,  not  documents  ever,  but 
simply  the  look  of  things. 

A  little  faded  painting  still  stains  the 
wall  above  the  Infants  of  Luna;  just  a  row 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

279 

of  perishing  saints  that  look  French  as  the 
little  statues  do,  pure  and  lovely.  French 
mural  painting  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
unless  markedly  Italianate,  was  much  of 
a  kind.  In  the  sacristy  is  preserved  a 
small  and  ruinous  panel,  very  precious,  of 
the  Crucifixion,  that  is  usually  denied  to 
the  sight  of  travellers  but  was  lent  to  the 
exposition  at  Saragossa  in  1904  and  there 
written  up  by  M.  Bertaux. 10  When  I 
examined  it  in  1912  it  seemed  to  me  some¬ 
thing  quite  wonderful:  done  in  the  same 
style  as  the  contemporary  French  minia¬ 
tures,  and  very  like  the  Parement  de 
Narbonne,  with  the  same  dependence  on 
outline  and  fiat  washes  of  tempera  barely 
discernible,  but  full  of  character.  The 
scene  of  the  Crucifixion  fills  the  greater 
part  of  the  panel,  the  Pelican  and  the  sun 
and  moon  being  above,  the  Madonna  and 
two  other  Maries  on  one  side  and  a  rather 
grotesque  S.  John  on  the  other;  in  the 
border  nine  prophets  with  scrolls  on  each 
side  and  two  bishops  below.  Under  all 
this,  a  church  of  three  aisles,  a  Bishop  en¬ 
throned  in  the  centre  giving  a  book  to  a 

French 

painting 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

to 

00 

o 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  genial 
fellow 

monk:  only  parts  of  the  body  and  hands 
are  left.  People  on  the  right  and  left  are 
both  secular  and  religious,  one  clerk  has  a 
rolled  document,  another  a  book,  an  ecclesi¬ 
astic  a  roll:  six  people,  between  and  smaller, 
are  kneeling,  one  at  least  has  a  book.  On 
the  steps  of  the  throne  a  genial  fellow  in 
gown  and  hood,  with  gloves,  has  one  hand 
bare.  Lamps  hang  in  the  aisles ;  the  arches 
are  cusped,  with  open  curves,  not  horse¬ 
shoe,  and  marmosets  in  the  spandrels;  the 
capitals  leafy.  Above  the  arms  of  the  cross 
are  figures  that  seem  to  be  the  Church  and 
Synagogue,  but  sorely  ruined.  So  much  I 
transcribe  from  notes  taken  at  the  time. 
Now,  knowing  more  about  Spanish  manu¬ 
scripts,  I  have  only  to  add  that  from  the 
reproduction  in  the  Saragossa  monograph 
may  be  made  out  a  musician  playing  the 
viol  on  the  Bishop’s  left,  and  in  the  crowd 
under  the  arch  beyond  him,  an  elephant  in 
royal  housings.  A  lady  in  this  crowd  wears 
a  coif  not  unlike  that  of  Anne  of  Brittany ; 
a  layman  on  the  opposite  side,  a  hood  of 
fifteenth -century  fashion.  The  roofs  are 
covered  with  overlapping  tiles  such  as  you 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

281  J 

find,  variously  indicated  but  intended  alike, 
in  Spanish  manuscripts  all  the  way  from 
the  Ashbumham  Pentateuch  (which  seems 

The  Ash- 
burnham 

to  be  Visigothic),  through  the  Bible  of  S. 
Peter  of  Roda  (called  also  the  Bible  de 
Noailles)  and  the  C  anti  gas  del  Rey  Sabio. 
I  should  add  that  the  head-dress  of  the 
holy  women,  a  veil  that  falls  in  scallops 
past  the  cheek,  is  worn  in  French  ivories  in 
the  fifteenth  century  and  in  a  little  Annun¬ 
ciation  of  that  date  in  Vich.  There  is  a 

Pentateuch 

fifteenth-century  ivory  at  Paris,  I  think  at 
the  Cluny,  which  is  very  close  to  the  main 
scene  of  the  Crucifixion :  there  is  a  reliquary 
of  a  Holy  Thorn  at  Pampeluna  which  is 
even  closer. 

In  short,  the  style  proves  later  and 
perhaps  less  French  on  study.  The  upper 

The  Caro¬ 
iingian 

part  goes  back  to  a  common  Caroiingian 
tradition  rather  than  a  direct  French 
source:  the  lower  part  is  absolutely  in  the 
Spanish  miniature  tradition  and  later 
than  the  paintings  to  the  books  of  el 
Rey  Sabio.  I  should  suppose  that  the 
Greek  gift  of  the  Lignum  Crucis  was  the 
occasion  of  the  panel. 1 1  The  mottoes, 

tradition 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

282 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

Sacra  Arbor 
Cruets 

which  M.  Bertaux  has  published,  all 
bear  on  the  single  theme  of  the  Tree  of 
the  Cross: 

On  the  title  of  the  Cross: 

“Similis  factus  sum  pellicano  solitudi- 
nis.”  Amen.  Ps.  ci,  72. 

The  Church: 

“Ecclesia. — Fasciculus  myrrh  dilec- 
tus  meus  mihi;  inter  ubera  mea  com- 
morabitur.”  Cant,  i,  12. 

Angel: 

“Angelus. — Beati  qui  lavant  stolas 
suas  in  sanguine  agni.”  Apoc.  xxii,  14. 

On  the  right  side: 

“  Jeremias. — Ego  quasi  agnus  mansue- 
tus  qui  portatur  ad  victimam.”  xi,  19. 

“Osseas. — Vivificabit  nos  post  duos 
dies,  in  die  tertia  suscitabit  nos  et  vive- 
mus  in  conspectu  ejus.”  vi,  3. 

“Joel. — Germinaverunt  spetiosa  de- 
serti  quia  lignum  attulit  fructum  suum.” 
ii,  22. 

“Joannes. — In  hoc  cognovimus  cari- 
tatem  Dei  quoniam  pro  nobis  animam 
suam  posuit.”  Ep.  iii,  16. 

“Ambrosius. — Finis  fidei  mee  iste  est: 
finis  fidei  mee  Filius  Dei  crucifixus  est.” 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

283 

On  the  left  side : 

[“Ezekiel. — Et  erunt]  fructus  ejus  in 
cibum  et  folia  ejus  in  medicinam.” 
xlvii,  12. 

“Daniel. — Post  hebdomades  LXXII 
oeci  [detur  Cristus].”  ix.  26. 

“Sofonias. — Expecta  me,  dicit  Do- 
minus,  in  die  resurrectionis  mee  in  futu- 
rum.”  iii,  8. 

“Petrus. — Peccata  nostra  ipse  per- 
tulit  in  corpore  suo  super  lignum 
Crucis.”  Ep.  ii,  24. 

Of  the  cathedral  itself  I  see  no  reason  to 
speak  at  length.  Street  has  characterized 
it  with  warmth  and  appreciation.  I  found 
the  arrangement  of  the  eastern  part,  based 
on  the  equilateral  triangle  and  the  hexagon, 
dry,  fantastical  rather  than  intuitive,  and 
rather  dull.  The  detail  of  mouldings ,  tracery 
and  capitals  is  pleasanter  than  one  has  a 
right  to  expect,  which  is  often  the  case  in  pro¬ 
vincial  work.  The  C oro  that  fills  up  the  nave 
with  solid  masonry,  the  west  front  that  Ven¬ 
tura  Rodriguez  applied  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  are  not  relevant  to  the  general  en¬ 
joyment  that  Gothic  alone  can  afford. 

fit  mundo 
semita  lucis 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

284 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Old 
Cathedral 

Looking  at  the  plan,  one  may  conjecture 
of  that  lost  Old  Cathedral  of  Peter  of  Roda, 
for  which  Peter  of  Paris  in  1186  got  the 
relics  of  S.  Firmin  from  the  north,  that  it 
belonged  to  the  grand  group  of  S.  Semin  of 
Toulouse,  with  high  dark  barrel-vaulted 
nave,  aisled  transept,  and  ambulatory 
with  chapels.  It  had  a  westerly  cloister, 
like  Burgos,  and  probably  towers  flanking 
the  last  Day  of  the  nave,  like  Bordeaux 
and  Bayonne.  Against  the  transept  face 
was  built  the  new  cloister,  while  the  com¬ 
mon  life  still  obtained,  that  had  a  square 
fountain  house  for  ablutions  in  the  comer 
next  the  Refectory.  This  is  turned  into 
a  chapel  now,  and  enclosed  with  ironwork 
that  came,  according  to  tradition,  from 
the  field  of  Las  Navas.  Four  Latin  verses 
are  written  above  the  doorway : 

Cingere  quae  cernis  crucifixum  ferrea 
vincla 

barbaricae  gentis  funere  rupta  manent: 

Sanctius  exuvias  discerptas  vindice  ferro 

hue,  illuc  sparsit  stemata  fustra  pius. 

Anno  1212. 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


The  old  chapter-house  still  stands,  where 
it  belongs,  eastward  of  the  cloister,  open¬ 
ing  upon  it  by  a  door  between  two  win¬ 
dows,  and  vaulted  in  a  great  star :  the  square 
plan  is  brought  to  octagonal  by  arches 
thrown  across  the  comers  and  vaulted  them¬ 
selves,  as  at  Burgos  and  in  the  eastern 
chapels  of  Las  Huelgas. 

Pampeluna  remains  in  recollection  with 
all  the  eighteenth-century  virtues,  clean, 
prosperous,  just  a  little  old-world,  very 
decent.  The  beggars  wear  a  brass  badge 
as  Dean  Swift  once  recommended,  and  are 
both  healthier-looking  and  better-dressed 
than  their  neighbours. 

Outside  the  town,  on  the  upper  side, 
beyond  all  the  walls,  dry  ditches  and  em¬ 
bankments,  the  road  forks.  One  way  runs 
back  into  Old  Castile;  the  other  east  and 
north.  As  we  stood  and  looked  toward 
France,  a  diligence  jingled  by  with  two 
women  atop,  on  the  road  to  France.  It 
was  irresistible,  or  all  but.  But  the  wind 
blew  keen  from  Spain,  and  the  pilgrim 
road  went  west,  and  we  turned  our  faces 
where  the  starry  stream  still  goes. 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


285 


Chapter- 

house 


The  road 
to  France 


286 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  house 

of  a 

hundred 

doors 

V 

SAINT  SEPULCHRE 

Ah,  see  the  fair  chivalry  come,  the 
companions  of  Christ  1 

White  Horsemen  who  ride  on  white 
horses,  the  Knights  of  God  1 

They,  for  their  Lord  and  their  Lover 
who  sacrificed 

All,  save  the  sweetness  of  treading 
where  He  first  trod  l 

The  curious  may  care  to  know  that, 
finding  it  impossible  to  pronounce  in¬ 
telligibly  those  Spanish  diphthongs  which 
are  a  ripple  of  vowels,  I  had  secured  in 
Pampeluna  a  postcard  of  Eunate,  and 
mildly  proffered  it  at  the  ticket  window  of 
the  diligence  office  and  in  conference  at 
Puente  la  Reyna.  It  sufficed.  The  church 
of  Eunate  lies,  not  many  miles  thence, 
quite  isolated  in  the  broad  and  fertile 
valley  of  the  Izarbe,  to  which  I  drove  over 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

o^Fuifl  z'u  •  •£!«,»  at!'. 


The  Queen’s  Bridge 


THE  WAY 

287 

in  a  sort  of  buggy.  It  is  a  pleasant,  soli¬ 
tary  little  place:  not  even  the  women  cut¬ 
ting  hay  and  turning  brown  moist  earth, 
will  cross  three  fields  to  say  a  prayer.  The 
priest  comes  seldom.  Like  a  boulder  in  a 
mountain  pasture,  it  lies  there  detached 
but  not  incongruous. 

I  know  a  little  about  circular  churches, 

Circular 

less  about  octagonal,  but  some,  I  am 
credibly  told,  exist  in  Asia  Minor;  I  know 
also  one  at  Laon,  one  at  Le  Puy,  and  one 
at  Segovia  in  Spain,  all  three  given  popu¬ 
larly  to  the  Knights  of  the  Temple :  likewise 
an  ermita  at  Torres,  on  the  Logrono  road. 
There  is  also  the  church  of  S.  Marcos  in 
Salamanca.  It  is  conceivable  that  they 
fetched  their  plan  from  the  East  for  those 
churches  and  this.  The  forms,  however, 
of  column  and  arch,  of  moulding  and  capi¬ 
tal,  are  those  of  the  region  round  about. 

churches 

The  church  is  an  irregular  octagon  with 

This, 

three-quarter  columns  and  capitals  at  the 
comers  and  corbels  under  the  roof.  The 
pentagonal  apse  has  the  same  column 
and  corbels,  and  a  window  with  jamb 
shafts,  a  bold  roll-moulding,  and  a  plain 

octagonal 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

I 

00 

GO 

cs 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

and  domed 

dripstone.  On  five  of  the  eight  sides  a 
strong  pointed  arch  in  the  masonry  of  the 
wall  reaches  a  trifle  higher  than  the  apse. 
It  is  roofed  by  slabs  of  stone  overlapping 
from  cornice  to  centre,  laid  with  plenty  of 
mortar.  Wild  grasses  wave  there.  The 
entrance  is  now  at  the  west  and  a  strong 
north  door  is  blocked  up  on  the  inside  by 
a  wardrobe;  a  winding  stair  goes  up  to  roof 
and  bells  in  a  projection  that  on  the  out¬ 
side  rather  spoils  the  proportions  but  was 
once  the  base  of  a  belfry.  In  the  body  of 
the  church,  the  shafts  in  the  corners  of  the 
octagon  go  up  to  a  plain  string-course  level 
with  the  sills  of  windows,  wrhich  are  open 
in  the  second  and  third  sides  and  in  the 
others  are  blind  niches:  from  the  capitals  of 
these  shafts  rise  others,  smaller,  to  sustain 
a  curved  rib,  on  top  of  which,  again,  rests 
each  of  the  eight  square  ribs  that  support 
the  dome.  About  at  the  haunch  of  this 
occur  openings  (now  covered  by  the  roof- 
tiles),  in  shape  alternately  lozenge  and 
octagon. 

The  apse  is  enriched  by  simple  repeti¬ 
tions:  the  entrance  arch  consists  of  two 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

T  H  E  W  A  Y 


orders  resting  on  capitals  built  into  the 
wall,  and  the  vault  rests  on  four  ribs  which 
come  down  on  shafts  to  the  window  sills. 
Around  inside,  an  upper  arcade  has  four 
round  arches  and  one  pointed,  a  lower 
arcade,  all  pointed:  the  shafts  which  sus¬ 
tained  this  are  hidden  by  the  steps  which 
go  around  the  inside  just  above  the  floor. 
The  capitals  are  made  chiefly  of  leaf 
forms,  but  a  few  show  interlaced  gro¬ 
tesques  and  a  fewT  show  early  Gothic.  All 
this  is  strong  building,  albeit  clumsy. 

The  thing  really  characteristic  about  the 
church  door,  outside,  is  the  local  style; 
dripstone  carved  with  a  row  of  debased 
human  grotesques,  as  at  S.  Miguel  of 
Esteila  and  El  Crucifija  of  Puente  la 
Reyna;  jamb  capitals  constituted  by  a 
rich  interlace,  as  at  the  same  two  churches; 
archivolts  carrying  a  leaf,  the  grape,  and 
for  the  rest,  rounds  and  hollows. 

An  amazing  octagonal  cloister  encom¬ 
passes  the  church  outside,  but  can  never 
have  had  a  roof,  or  some  traces  of  that 
would  remain  on  the  walls.  The  cloister 
has  been,  to  be  sure,  ruined,  built  up 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 


289 


strong 


and 

regional 


290 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

An  open 
cloister 

plainly  by  restorers,  and  roofed  along 
the  masonry  with  tiles,  but  now  as  always 
it  remains  a  mere  enclosure,  a  cincture 
and  not  a  shelter  or  screen.  It  is  hard  to 
recall  a  parallel  for  this.  In  the  ruined 
cloister  of  S.  Juan  de  Duero,  at  Soria, 
though  the  alleys  are  roofless  now  they 
had  once  a  timber  roof,  and  the  cloister 
ran  around  inside  an  enclosing  wall  of  the 
Commandery.  Only  three  of  the  sides  at 
Eunate  retain  their  capitals  and  their 
noble  coupled  shafts:  one  of  these  shows 
Oriental  motives,  and  one  perhaps  the 
figures  of  Templars,  the  rest  interlace,  or 
leaf  forms,  all  of  a  sort  that  cannot  be 
earlier  than  the  twelfth  century. 

About  this  cloister  Sr.  Lamperez 1  offers 
an  interesting  suggestion,  starting  from 
the  common  admission  that  the  circular 
churches  of  the  Middle  Age  have  a  double 
origin,  deriving  possibly  from  Roman 
temples  like  that  of  Minerva  Medica  and 
the  so-called  temple  of  Vesta  on  Tiber 
bank,  or  else,  equally  well,  from  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,  rebuilt  by  Syrians 
for  the  Christians  at  the  end  of  the  seventh 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

291 

century.  This  was  from  the  tenth  cen¬ 
tury  the  goal  of  pilgrims  and  crusaders, 
and  the  Military  Orders,  born  under  its 
shadow,  built  after  its  fashion.  As  has 
been  said  already,  in  the  twelfth  century 
(1134)  King  Alfonso  Sanchez  in  his  will 
invited  them  to  the  inheritance  of  his 

Holy 

Sepulchres 

kingdom  of  Aragon  and  Navarre.  Their 
power  belongs  to  the  time  of  Sancho  the 
Wise,  1 1 50- 1 194,  counting  from  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  Ribaforada  in  1157.  Supposing, 
then,  that  they  built  a  commandery  here  in 
the  last  third  of  the  twelfth  century,  they 
had  a  chance  to  evoke,  in  the  Spanish  up¬ 
lands,  the  Sepulchre  to  which  they  were 
dedicated.  Now  S.  Jerome  speaks  of  an 
uncovered,  concentric  atrium  which  existed 
around  the  Holy  Tomb,  so  constructed 
“not  to  intercept  the  space  by  which  the 
Lord  rose  into  Heaven,”  and  this  was 
preserved  in  restorations  of  the  seventh, 
ninth,  and  eleventh  centuries,  though  it  is 
covered  now.  If  it  was  already  covered 
by  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  still 
the  Templars  might  be  familiar  with  the 
passage  in  S.  Jerome.  This  plausible 

1 

The  Vir¬ 
gin’s  also 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

292 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Virgin  of 
Eunate 

conjecture  would  make  the  arcade  now 
standing,  the  inner  side  of  a  gallery 
that  surrounded  the  church — which  would 
stand,  then,  in  the  centre  of  a  wide  cloister 
garth.2  That  there  was  a  whole  monas¬ 
tery,  of  many  buildings,  all  round  about 
the  present  church  where  now  the  plough 
goes,  is  well  known:  labourers  still  turn  up 
the  stones  and  expose  the  remains  of  walls 
and  foundations. 

In  1312  the  Templars  left  Navarre,  but 
their  Virgin  is  still  there:  unfortunately  I 
did  not  know  of  her  existence  at  the  time 
of  the  visit,  and  the  woman  fetched  with 
the  keys  did  not  trouble  to  mention  her; 
as  for  the  priest,  he  was  miles  away.  Sr. 
Lamperez  compares  her  with  those  of 
Ujue,  Villahuerta,  and  Irache  (now  in 
Dicastillo)  and  considers  them  all  to  be 
of  the  first  third  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Some  other  observations  of  his  are  of  value: 
for  instance,  that  there  is  nothing  Cister¬ 
cian  about  the  place,  but  it  may  be  com¬ 
pared  with  the  eastern  end  of  Leyre  and 
the  cloister  of  S.  Pedro  la  Rua  (I  should 
urge  that  the  art  is  not  so  finished  by  far) 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

293 

and  other  constructions  of  the  region. 
The  capitals  inside,  he  says,  are  all  leaf 
forms  (I  am  not  quite  sure  of  this,  but 
most  of  them  are)  and  to  the  Corinthian 
scheme  they  unite  a  Syro-Byzantine  man¬ 
ner.  He  feels  that,  in  the  grotesques  of 
the  north  door,  with  a  fantastic  fauna 
alternate  a  series  of  personages  that  seem 
meant  for  priests  in  hieratic  vestments. 
He  traces  two  hands  in  the  work:  the 
church  strong,  robust,  energetic  in  orna¬ 
mentation,  the  cloister  slimmer  and  very 
fine  and  free  in  decoration.  But  the  two 
may  well  be  contemporary. 

The  right  name  of  this  strange  temple 
is  the  Basilica  of  Auriz.  Its  picturesque 
bye-name,  Eunate,  comes  from  two  Basque 
roots,  and  means  “the  house  of  a  hundred 
doors.” 

Syro- 

Byzantine 

manner 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

294 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

So  Jaufre 
Rudel 

Puente  la  Reyna. 

Quan  lo  rius  de  la  fontana 
S’esclarzis,  si  cum  far  sol, 
E  par  la  flors  aiglentina, 
El  rossinholetz  el  ram 
Volf  e  refranh  ez  aplana 
Son  dous  chantar  et  afina, 
Dreitz  es  qu'ieu  lo  mieu 
ref  ran  ha: 

Amors  de  terra  Ion  hidana 
Per  vos  totz  lo  cors  mi  dol; 
E  non  puesc  trobar  me- 
zina. 1 

Unlike  Estella,  first  mentioned  in  1076, 
and  Sangiiesa,  called  into  existence  as  a 
lower  town  in  1131,  Puente  la  Reyna  is  a 
very  ancient  place.  It  was,  for  sure,  before 
the  Moors;  it  was,  perhaps,  before  the 
Romans,  for  it  lies  on  a  main  road  at  the 
crossing  of  a  river;  but  in  importance  it 
ranks  simply  with  those  other  twelfth 
century  towns  which  were  stages  along  the 
track  of  the  pilgrimage.  The  bridge  was 
the  work  of  Dona  Mayor  when  Sancho  III 
was  building  the  great  Way  across  Navarre, 
or  possibly  of  her  daughter-in-law,  Dona 
Estefania,  the  queen  of  Garcia  Sanchez,  el 
de  Ndjera.  The  town  figures  in  the  reigns 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

295 

of  Sancho  the  Noble  and  Sancho  Ramirez, 
in  the  eleventh  century,  and  in  1 1 22  Alfonso 
el  Batallador  dowered  it  well,  with  privilege 
of  wood  cutting  and  tillage,  and  water 
free,  “for  the  desire  I  have,”  he  wrote, 
“  that  here  shall  come  to  dwell  all  peoples, 
and  that  they  shall  make  a  great  and 
excellent  town.”  When  he  wrote  that 
phrase  about  all  peoples,  he  meant  more 
than  Navarrese,  or  even  Spaniards:  Lom¬ 
bards  and  Provencals,  Normans  and 
English,  Flemings  and  French,  Burgun¬ 
dians,  Germans  and  Dutch,  Hungarians, 
Irish,  Tuscans  and  Romans  and  half 
Saracen  Sicilians,  all  who  passed  incessantly 
on  the  same  journey  westward,  under  the 
bright  stars.  The  real  life  of  these  towns 
was  from  the  twelfth  century  to  the 
fifteenth  only,  and  the  greatest  centuries 
of  the  pilgrimage  though  not  the  most 
crowded  were  the  centuries  of  the  Recon¬ 
quest,  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thir¬ 
teenth,  when  Spain  was  just,  as  we  say, 
opened  up  for  the  rest  of  Europe,  as  a  fresh 
field  for  enterprise.  There  was  a  hearing 
at  the  capitals  and  the  castles,  for  poets 

All  peoples 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

296 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

The 

Peddler’s 

Wallet 

like  Guillermo  Aneliers  who  wrote  the  Civil 
War  of  Pampeluna.2  There  was  a  market 
for  the  peddler,  with  thin  silk  from  Sicily 
and  thick  silk  from  Lyons,  or  furs  from 
Muscovy  and  beyond;  and  at  the  very 
core  of  one  of  the  saddle-bags,  safe  from  a 
fall  on  the  mountain  side  or  a  slip  in  the 
ford,  something,  enamel  or  jewel,  small  in 
size,  light  in  weight,  and  more  precious 
than  the  ingot  gold.  That  peddler  was 
your  great  purveyor  of  taste.  You  see  him 
as  painted  up  in  S.  Isidore  of  Leon,  in  the 
month  of  May,  leading  his  donkey,  in 
eleven-hundred-something:  and  again  in  a 
background  of  the  Grimani  Breviary,  at 
1500.  In  May,  when  the  snows  were  out 
of  the  mountain  passes  and  the  spring 
floods  had  gone  down,  he  set  out  from 
Marseilles  or  Venice  or  Barcelona,  or 
Toulouse,  maybe,  or  Bruges,  where  he 
would  have  wintered  in  comfort.  He 
loaded  the  two  beasts  which  are  all  one 
man  can  manage,  with  a  few  things  of  the 
very  best,  with  Flemish  cloth  and  linen 
from  the  fairs  of  Troyes.  To  great  ladies 
he  brought  a  veil  of  cypress  lawn,  to  great 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


297 


abbots  a  bone,  or  enough  embroidered 
stuff  to  make  orphreys  for  a  vestment. 3 

To  the  adventurous  youth  of  Christen¬ 
dom,  Spain  offered  a  never-ending  Cru¬ 
sade  without  the  sea  passage.  In  1085 
Frftrh  Hupthffi  .Tere  enlisted  for  the  siege 
of  Toledo;  in  1096  for  Huesca^  in  1118 
for  Saragossa,  in  1116  for  the  defense  and 
re-peopling  of  Tarragona.  There  were  so 
many  Franks  at  the  conquest  of  Toledo 
that  they  gave  their  name  to  a  quarter;  at 
that  of  Valencia  nine  years  later,  that  they 
left  it  in  streets  along  the  coast-wise- 
lying  towns.  There  I  saw  it.  Bretons, 
Aquitanians  and  Gascons  figured  in  the 
Aragonese  conquest:  the  Crusader’s  vow 
was  commuted  to  the  Normans  at  Tarra¬ 
gona;  Seville  was  divided  into  the  streets 
for  Genoese,  Franks,  etc.  The  White  Com¬ 
pany  of  Du  Guesclin,  the  Black  Prince’s 
troops,  came  and  went  across  the  north, 
and  left  their  wounded  sometimes,  and  car¬ 
ried  off  sometimes  their  girls. 

A  pilgrimage  was  only  a  little  less  exciting 
than  a  crusade,  and  needed  less  experience: 
it  could  be  made  during  convalescence 


A  never- 

ending 

crusade 


« 


V 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


298 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Messen¬ 

gers 

and 

students 

or  retrenchment.  Monks  were  always 
travelling,  messengers  constantly  coming 
and  going  between  Rome  and  the  great 
abbeys,  great  clerics  moving  on  diplomatic 
business  between  kings.  The  circle  of 
European  politics  suddenly  included  four 
more  kings  at  least,  as  possible  husbands 
for  daughters  and  fathers  for  queens:  the 
Spanish  kings  married,  so  to  speak,  very 
widely.  Daughters  established  in  strange 
lands  sent  home  strange  folk  with  gifts 
and  letters ;  alien  queens  in  the  land  brought 
their  households  and  their  ways  when 
they  came.  Spanish  students  made  their 
way  to  Padua  and  Bologna,  to  Oxford,  and 
above  all  to  Paris,  where  the  College  of 
Navarre  was  founded  in  1304.  On  the 
tramp  they  took  in  as  much  of  the  world  as 
could  be  embraced;  other  nations  by  the 
thirteenth  century  came  to  Seville  and 
Irache,  and  in  Barcelona  the  B.  Ramon 
Lull  lectured  to  four  thousand  students. 
Clerks  came  down  either  to  get  learning 
from  the  Arabs  in  the  south  and  east,  or 
to  pick  up  the  scraps  in  the  northern  towns 
as  these  were  retaken.  Monks  came 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


299 


across  the  Pyrenees  in  hungry  droves,  and 
settled  down  in  the  plains  of  Castile  and 
Aragon  like  grackles  in  a  cornfield.  The 
best  of  them  intended  to  sit  by  a  king’s 
shoulder:  the  least  of  them  could  count  on 
a  grange  or  a  mill.  Where  churches  and 
castles  were  building,  and  convents  and 
whole  cities,  labour  must  automatically 
move,  workmen  must  press,  sure  of  good 
wages  and  steady  work.  Where  great 
crowds  are  assembled,  vast  numbers  con¬ 
gested  or  in  motion,  there  you  will  find  the 
vermin  that  like  close  lying,  warm  sitting, 
thieves,  robbers,  pickpockets;  also  the  pro¬ 
fessional  cheat,  or  confidence  man;  and  the 
relic-monger.  So,  too,  the  huge  and  shift¬ 
ing  company  will  take  kindly  to  diversion, 
and  give  up  to  the  professional  entertainer 
an  honest  livelihood,  one  fairly  earned. 
Puente  la  Reyna  would  be  full  of  fiddlers, 
story  tellers  and  jongleurs,  and  many  of  the 
same  occupation  as  S.  Mary  of  Egypt. 

Police  duty  would  not  be  light  in  such  a 
place.  The  town  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Templars  from  1 146  until  they  were  ruined, 
and  they  were  succeeded  by  the  Knights 


Monks 


Profession¬ 
al  enter¬ 
tainers 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


300 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Knights  of 
S.  John 

of  S.  John.  These,  both,  were  soldiers  and 
were  monks,  they  ensured  discipline  and 
military  justice,  which  has  the  great  virtue 
of  certainty. 

Their  church,  El  Crucifijo, 4  was  not 
finished  till  after  1487,  under  John  II. 
The  chancellor  of  Navarre,  D.  Juan  de 
Beaumont,  in  1448  founded,  with  Papal 
approbation,  a  Hospital  of  Frailes  Com- 
mcndadores  of  his  order,  in  the  place  where 
the  Templars  had  kept  one  for  the  pilgrims 
going  to  Santiago  de  Galicia,  it  being  then 
ruined  by  wars  and  calamities  of  time  past. 
To  celebrate  the  solemn  foundation  a 
provincial  chapter  was  held  in  Olite,  to 
preside  at  which  the  Grand  Master  sent 
a  special  representative,  and  to  magnify 
which  Eugenius  IV  gave  many  graces  and 
indulgences.  These  included  the  faculty 
for  a  confraternity  of  three  hundred  mem¬ 
bers,  whose  alms  should  sustain  the  hospice. 
The  king  himself  and  his  son  the  prince 
of  Viana  were  members.  Sir  John  Beau¬ 
mont,  who  was  Grand  Prior  of  the  order  as 
well  as  institutor  of  this  Confraternity  of 
the  Crucified,  desired  to  be  buried  in  their 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

301 

church,  but  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1487 
it  was  not  finished,  and  only  in  1577  were 
the  bones  moved  thither.  Today  the 
church  is  ruined,  between  the  restorations  of 
wealth  and  the  destructions  of  war:  the 
tombs  survived  down  to  1836.  It  would 
seem  from  the  description  preserved  and 
the  recollections  of  old  men  in  the  70’s 
and  8o’s,  that  it  was  in  some  way  influenced 
by  that  of  Charles  the  Noble.  Standing 
in  the  Cap  ilia  Mayor,  on  the  Gospel  side, 
it  was  fashioned  of  choice  alabaster,  with 
a  kneeling  effigy  likewise  of  alabaster  and 
an  epitaph  in  rather  bad  Spanish  verse,  but 
the  urn  or  sarcophagus  was  adorned  round 
about  with  figures  recalling  the  great 
lord’s  burial:  priests,  the  celebrant,  deacon 
and  sub-deacon,  the  sacristan  and  acolytes 
with  candles.  This  may,  of  course,  be  the 
description  of  one  of  those  long  ceremo¬ 
nials  that  in  the  fifteenth  century  filled  the 
niche  in  which  a  tomb  was  set.  Through¬ 
out  the  northeast  of  Spain,  at  the  tomb  of 
Mossen  Frances  de  Villa  Espesa,  in  Tudela, 
at  that  of  Bishop  Lope  de  Luna  in  Saragossa, 
on  fragments  of  others  in  the  Museum  at 

A  ruined 
sepulchre 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

302 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The 

Crucified 

Lerida,  you  find  them.  But,  considering 
the  position,  it  may  well  be  that  an  altar 
tomb  like  those  at  Dijon  and  Pampeluna 
was  ordered  and  commenced  and  that  in 
the  sixteenth  century  the  family,  at  the 
time  of  translation,  completed  it  with  a 
more  fashionable  sort  of  effigy. 

The  pointed  south  door  of  El  Crucifijo 
survives,  though  wasted  by  weather. 
Three  shafts  in  the  jamb  are  patterned 
over  with  knops  and  other  diapers:  the 
capitals  were  apparently  in  the  style  of 
some  at  S.  Miguel  of  Estella  and  at  Eunate, 
a  sort  of  interlace  with  creatures  caught  in 
the  creepers.  The  abaci  have  a  leaf  pattern 
or  entrelacs.  Of  the  archivolts:  the  in¬ 
most  order  is  of  these  very  fine  entrelacs 
that  recall,  in  their  spirit  and  felicity,  the 
work  at  Bari  by  the  eastern  sea,  and  Trani 
that  great  entrepot  of  the  Crusaders.  In 
the  next  order  is  a  pattern  that  I  have  not 
seen  elsewhere  and  that  resembles  nothing 
but  the  crimped  curls  of  butter  that  come 
in  with  your  coffee  and  croissants  in  France, 
but  whereas  those  are  incredibly  thin,  these 
are  rather  solid,  almost  like  the  half  of  a 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

303 

fluted  spindle.  Follows,  in  repetition,  an 
elaborate  complete  ornament  made  out 
of  the  honeysuckle:  then  a  row  of  gro¬ 
tesques,  some  leaf,  some  animal  forms,  pine 
cones,  an  angel,  a  head,  beasts  and  birds, 
harpies,  and  birds  pecking;  lastly,  a  large 
leaf  for  the  dripstone.  Sr.  Lamperez 
suggests5  that  the  carvings  are  imitated 
from  Byzantine  ivories.  The  archivolts 
are,  excepting  the  row  of  grotesques,  quite 
unlike  anything  else  that  I  know  in  the 
region,  and  those  grotesques  are  unlike 
in  detail,  though  in  method  of  application 
similar,  to  those  at  Leyre  and  Aulnay. 
The  artisan  copied  such  forms  as  fell  under 
his  hand  and  applied  them  as  he  was  used; 
the  sculpture  of  the  jambs,  though  cunning 
and  over-refined,  is  in  a  style  disused  else¬ 
where  after  the  Romanesque  age,  or  at 
any  rate  after  the  transitional  style,  and  it 
is  well  to  have  the  dated  example. 

At  the  church  of  Santiago,  in  the  heart 
of  the  new  town,  the  western  door  is  very 
plain,  with  a  round  arch,  early  Gothic 
capitals,  and  the  chrism  in  the  tympanum. 
The  south  door,  however,  is  magnificent 

Oriental 

carvings 

Santiago 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

304 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  two 
Wrongs 

Days  of 
Creation 

and  full  of  delight,  though  cruelly  worn  by 
weather,  especially  on  its  western  half.  The 
jambs  are  of  a  style  to  be  found  at  Estella, 
where  five  shafts  are  separated  and  flanked 
by  others  much  slenderer,  topped  each 
with  a  human  head.  The  richly  carved 
abacus  and  storied  capitals  are  carried  in  a 
continuous  band  from  the  face  of  the  door 
all  the  way  across  the  buttresses  that  flank 
the  entire  portal.  On  the  face  of  the  east 
buttress  this  band  is  filled  by  three  lions, 
on  the  west  by  four  syrens  or  harpies;  the 
style  is  like  that  of  the  latest  decorative 
work  at  Sanguesa  but  much  finer.  They 
represent  probably,  for  all  their  beauty, 
the  two  great  Wrongs:  sins  of  Wrath,  the 
lions;  sins  of  Desire,  the  harpies.  Above 
this  on  the  western  buttress  is  a  headless 
relief  of  a  man  fighting  a  lion  that  symbol¬ 
izes  the  strife  of  soul  and  body;  that  on  the 
ease  is  too  worn  to  decipher. 

There  is  no  tympanum;  the  round  arch 
of  the  doorway  is  deeply  cusped  and  the 
face  of  it  carved  with  a  series  of  seven 
medallions  or  scrolls  of  the  days  of  crea¬ 
tion.  In  the  archivolts,  the  innermost  row 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


contains  chiefly  birds,  and  the  next  gro¬ 
tesques:  the  outer  ones,  Scriptural  scenes: 
a  pair  of  prophets,  the  Visitation,  the 
Announcement  to  the  Shepherds,  and 
Flight  into  Egypt,  the  Epiphany,  Herod 
and  the  Kings,  the  Massacre.  Cruelly 
wasted,  but  still  fair,  it  is  all  late  and  rich 
pictorial  sculpture.  I  should  not  dare  to 
suppose  that  it  was  earlier  than  the  second 
half  of  the  thirteenth  century.  In  justice 
it  should  be  said  that  Sr.  Madrazo6  wanted 
to  give  it  to  the  time  of  Sancho  the  Wise  or 
Sancho  the  Strong,  a  hundred  years  before 
this,  at  the  same  time  referring  the  forms 
of  the  portal  to  the  contemporary  style  of 
Poitou  and  Saintonge.  In  any  case  it  is 
older  than  the  church,  which  was  built 
completely  over  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
probably  under  Charles  the  Noble,  who 
reared  himself  pleasure  palaces  here,  with 
bosques  and  parks.  In  1410  Simon  Lopez 
was  master  of  the  works  at  the  castle. 7  Of 
the  workmen  or  the  work  on  the  church,  we 
know  nothing.  Very  high  and  wide,  of  a 
single  span,  the  vaulting  rests  not  on 
columns  but  on  the  semicircular  inner 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


305 


Scenes  of 
the 

Infancy 


3°6 


Inward- 

jutting 

buttresses 


S.  Pedro 


WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 


face  of  buttresses  of  which  the  projection  is 
inward,  into  the  body  of  the  church.  This 
is  the  practice  at  Albi  and  other  places  in 
the  south  of  France,  and  over  the  border, 
at  Irun  and  S.  Sebastian.  The  space  be¬ 
tween  the  buttresses  is  regularly  vaulted 
over  in  a  narrow  bay,  to  form  lateral  chap¬ 
els:  the  transept  is  deeper  than  these; 
the  portal  opens  out  of  the  last  bay  on 
the  south :  a  rococo  retable  blocks  the  apse 
and  a  still  more  rococo  organ  the  western 
gallery. 

There  is  a  third  church,  S.  Pedro,  plain  on 
the  outside,  with  a  western  door  rather  like 
that  of  Santiago  and  an  interior  of  the 
latest  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In  the 
twelfth  century  the  townsmen  of  Murula- 
barren,  attracted  by  the  advantages  which 
D.  Alfonso  el  Batallador  and  D.  Garcia  el 
Rcstanrador  had  offered,  migrated  hither 
en  masse  and  settled  in  the  quarter  of  S. 
Pedro;  they  may  have  built  this  church. 

For  some  reason,  Cisneros  spared  the 
fortifications  of  Puente,  and  the  hugeous 
wall,8  built  against  and  into,  brown  and 
high,  looms  behind  the  sycamores  of  a 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  WAY 

307 

shabby  Paseo  which  gets  nothing  from  the 
river,  not  even  a  view  of  the  beautiful 
Queen’s  Bridge.  Inside,  the  streets  are 
narrow,  and  the  children  ignorant  and 
wretched— the  worst  crowd,  perhaps,  that 
a  woman  alone  had  ever  to  deal  with.  The 
woman  in  question  was  driven  to  earth  at 
last  in  the  Town  Hall,  ringing  the  bell  there 
very  much  in  the  temper  of  the  poor  old 
horse  who  nibbled  the  straw  rope  in  the 
famous  story  and  sounded  the  appeal 
for  justice.  The  town  clerks  and  council¬ 
lors  were  all  at  home  and  asleep  in  the  long 
noon,  but  a  frank  old  woman,  who  lived  in 
the  tower,  was  persuaded  for  a  while  to 
lend  a  chair,  a  kitten  and  some  attention. 
She  felt  it  not  only  natural  but  laudable 
that  children  on  seeing  a  woman  alone 
should  assume  she  was  dissipated  ( borracha 
was  the  word),  and  hustle  and  hoot  her, 
and  after  a  bit,  growing  sleepy  herself,  and 
having  run  through  all  her  family  history 
and  that  of  her  husband’s  relatives,  she 
wanted  to  lock  up,  and  sent  the  strange 
woman  packing.  By  this  hour,  however, 
the  children  were  in  school,  under  the 

"  Company 
with 

honesty”... 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

308 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Padres 

Escolapios 

charge  of  the  quaintly  named  Padres 
Escolapios,  so  that  it  was  possible  to  escape 
to  a  bench  under  the  dusty  sycamores,  and 
to  wait  there  for  the  returning  diligence. 
Government  schools  are  said  to  teach 
something  about  a  common  humanity,  and 
manners  toward  the  outlander;  where  only 
parish  and  Jesuit  schools  are  found,  they 
wot  not  of  such  things. 

When  the  diligence  came,  it  had  not  a 
vacant  seat:  the  driver  and  conductor, 
undisturbed,  recommended  not  as  an  alter¬ 
native  but  as  the  only  action,  sleeping  at 
Puente  and  taking  that  which  would  pass 
early  the  next  morning.  One  had  no  night 
things,  one  could  not  believe  that  any  inn 
might  be  tolerable,  one  simply  didn’t  see 
how,  at  the  end  of  a  long  day,  to  walk  the 
ten  miles  or  more  to  Estella,  but  certainly 
one  was  not  going  back  like  an  abandoned 
cat  to  the  hooting  and  hustling  children  of 
those  streets.  As  a  last  resort,  the  woman 
alone  became  a  lonely  woman,  very  pitiful 
— afraid  to  sleep  in  a  strange  place  by  her¬ 
self,  afraid  to  leave  a  timorous  Jehane  by 
herself  overnight  in  Estella.  Incontinent, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

309 

four  strapping  Navarrese  lads  packed  them¬ 
selves  into  the  space  provided  by  sta¬ 
tute  for  three,  and  in  contentment  that 
amounted  almost  to  hilarity,  the  dili¬ 
gence  swept  on  to  Estella.  For  this  un¬ 
expected  repudiation  of  law,  decency,  and 
invariable  Spanish  practice,  may  places 
be  found  hereafter  for  the  driver,  the 
conductor,  and  the  four  Navarrese,  among 
the  blessed. 

El  Sepulcro. 

Happy  day  and  mighty  hour, 

When  our  shepherd,  in  his  power, 

Mailed  and  horsed,  with  lance  and  sword, 
To  his  ancestors  restored, 

Like  a  re-appearing  Star, 

Like  a  glory  from  afar 

First  shall  head  the  flock  of  war! 

At  about  the  same  distance  from  Estella 
in  the  opposite  direction  lies  another  ex¬ 
ample  of  the  same  rare  type  of  church  as 
Eunate,  finer  and  more  splendid,  albeit 
unknown.  El  Sepulcro  of  Torres,  octago¬ 
nal,  has  dome  and  lantern,  projecting  apse, 
and  separate  staircase  turret  intact.  The 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

3io 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

“Bosomed 
high  in 
tufted 
trees  ’’ 

Logrono  road  curls  around  a  hill-set  city ,  and 
then  in  a  wide  curve  sweeps  down  steeply 
to  the  shallow  river  valley:  and  thence  you 
look  across  to  Torres  on  the  ascending  hill, 
and  catch  the  sun  on  lantern  tower  and 
arcaded  sides.  Travellers,  on  the  other 
hand,  approaching  from  Viana,  may  see 
from  the  post-road  the  tower  reared  above 
thick  trees,  and  guess  what  must  sustain 
it.  Yet  the  church,  unknown  to  Madrazo, 
remains  such,  undivined  by  Sr.  Lamperez; 
a  French  ecclesiologist,  it  is  said,  driving 
through  the  country  eight  or  ten  years 
ago,  before  private  motors  had  grown 
general,  saw,  and  stopped  to  see  more  and 
to  photograph,  and  was  much  molested  by 
the  crowding  curious  children.  They  are 
indeed  tiresome  as  gnats,  but  not  bad- 
hearted,  except  one  boy,  cross-eyed  and 
cross-spirited;  and  their  elders  rebuked 
and  dispersed  them  a  dozen  times,  but  al¬ 
ways  they  gathered  again,  filling  the  open 
doorway  of  the  empty  church,  and  blotting 
out  the  patch  of  sunlight  on  the  floor. 
While  the  stranger  who  so  intrigued  them 
was  taking  measurements  and  photographs, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

El  Sepulcro 


THE  WAY 


the  Mayor  arrived  and  exchanged  a  few 
civil  phrases,  likewise  a  tall  spare  person 
all  in  cool  linen  clothes,  the  richest  there¬ 
abouts.  He  supplied  the  recollection  of  the 
earlier  passer-by,  who  can  only,  in  conjec¬ 
ture,  figure  as  M.  Bertaux.  Down  at  the 
inn  on  the  post-road,  friendly  folk  kept  deli¬ 
cately  out  of  the  way,  and  the  traveller 
lunched  alone,  and  alone  awaited,  over  a 
novel,  the  evening  coach  to  return,  without 
so  much  to  bear  as  a  curious  glance  from 
the  hall:  with  only  a  murmur  of  voices 
quiet  as  summer  flies,  reading  and  dis¬ 
cussing  the  newspaper  that  she  had  brought 
down  that  morning  by  chance.  Oh,  the 
courtesy  of  these  small  Spanish  places,  so 
conscious  yet  so  sure!  Just  because  it  is 
not  spontaneous  and  necessary  and  per¬ 
sonal,  as  in  Tuscany,  it  tastes  the  sweeter. 
Here  the  landlord  still  feels  himself  the 
host,  and  the  traveller  the  guest.  The 
pretty  daughter  of  the  house,  who  served 
the  table,  was  found  in  calico  at  the  early 
arrival,  and  dressed  herself  in  serge  for 
dinner,  and  dressed  her  black  hair,  and 
craved  pardon  because  the  cares  of  house 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


313 


Spanish 

courtesy 


versus 

Tuscan 


3H 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  little  in 
history 

and  kitchen  prevented  her  sitting  down  to 
entertain.  The  same  careful  grace  marked 
the  gentle  hunchbacked  postman  who  had 
fetched  the  key  and  opened  the  church; 
after  his  round  with  letters,  he  came  back 
prepared  to  remain  as  escort  or  depart  as 
interruption,  with  no  will  except  to  know 
the  other’s  wish.  The  day  would  have  been 
sweet  enough  with  human  pleasantness, 
apart  from  the  sportsman’s  zest  in  hunting 
churches  and  finding  such  game. 

The  town  of  Torres  figures  a  little  in 
history,  like  any  other :  near  the  road  there 
was  in  old  times  a  monastery,  and  the 
church  attached  to  it,  of  very  good  and 
firm  architecture,  which  D.  Ximeno  Galin- 
dez  gave  to  Irache  in  noo. 1  The  parish 
church,  which  is  dedicated  to  S.  Peter,  has 
only  a  small  establishment. 

When  in  1134  Alfonso  el  Balallador  left 
his  kingdom  by  will  to  the  three  Orders  of 
the  Hospital,  the  Temple  and  the  Holy 
Sepulchre, 2  the  Canon  Giraldo,  who  was 
sent  over  to  take  possession  in  the  name  of 
the  third,  was  unluckily  sir  clerk  and  not  sir 
knight,  and  the  Order  consequently  in  Spain 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


was  ecclesiastical  and  not  chivalrous.  In 
1141  the  Patriarch  and  Chapter  in  Jerusa¬ 
lem  ceded  their  claims  on  the  kingdom,  and 
received  in  return  from  Ramon  Berenguer 
territory  and  vassals  to  found  a  church  in 
Calatayud,  next  to  the  Mozarabic  quarter. 
Alfonso  VII  of  Castile  took  a  liking  to  the 
Order  while  he  held  Calatayud,  and  intro¬ 
duced  it  into  his  dominions,  giving  it  pro¬ 
perty  in  Toro  and  Zamora;  in  Salamanca, 
the  church  known  now  as  S.  Cristobal;  in 
Segovia,  that  dedicated  to  Vera  Cruz3 
and  wrongfully  assigned  to  the  Templars 
which  was  dedicated  in  1208.  In  Logrono 
the  same  canon  Gerard,  who  founded  the 
church  of  S.  Mary  at  Calatayud,  founded 
a  church  and  chapter:  the  King  had  given 
his  palace  there  to  the  Order,  and  this  will 
be  5.  Maria  del  Palacio.  In  Aragon,  there 
were  houses  also  at  Borja  and  Huesca,  and 
in  Catalonia  the  Colegiata  of  S.  Ana; 
there  were  houses  in  Valencia  and  Mallorca. 
Of  the  two  nuns’  houses,  that  in  Saragossa 
still  exists,  and  these  Comendadoras  are 
the  only  living  members  of  the  Order  in 
the  world.  I  can  find  no  mention  of  a 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


315 


The  Order 
of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre 


Comenda¬ 

doras 


I 


3l6 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

l  Arriba, 
canes, 

arribai 

daughter  house  at  Torres,  but  this  is  not 
evidence  that  there  was  none:  a  document 
or  1303  is  signed  by  Fr.  Joanne  Petri  de 
Torres,  among  other  witnesses,  and  the 
same  Fray  Juan  Perez  of  Torres  was 
Prior  in  the  years  1385  to  1391.  In  1489 
the  military  orders  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
and  of  S.  Lazarus  of  Bethlehem  and 
Nazareth  were  suppressed  and  their  goods 
made  over  to  that  of  S.  John,  by  Pope 
Innocent  VIII  in  the  Bull,  Cum  solerti 
meditationc.  The  Bull  was  not  everywhere 
well  received;  in  Aragon  it  was  ignored. 

I  find  the  Prior  of  Calatayud  exercising 
jurisdiction  spiritual  and  temporal  in  the 
early  sixteenth  century,  over  the  five 
towns  that  still  belonged  to  the  Order 
[in  Aragon?]:  Nuevales,  Tobed,  Torralba 
de  los  Frailes,  Codos,  and  S.  Cruz  de 
Tobed.  Torres,  however,  is  in  Navarre, 
and  La  Fuente  says  explicitly  that  the 
Order  had  two  provinces  and  by  the  same 
token  celebrated  chapters.4 

The  Prior  of  Calatayud  took  precedence, 
and  called  himself  sometimes  Grand  Prior. 
His  church  was  begun  1144, 5  consecrated 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

3W 

first  in  1156,  finished  and  again  conse¬ 
crated  1 249. 6 

In  consequence  of  the  dates,  fixed  by  the 
Baptistery  at  Parma,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  Crusade 
under  Theobald  of  Navarre,  in  Anatolia 
and  the  Taurus,  in  the  second  quarter,  the 
church  of  S.  Sepulchre  at  Torres  must  be 
assigned  to  a  time  well  along  in  the  thir¬ 
teenth  century. 

The  wall  arcade  outside  is  pointed ; 
noble  columns  run  the  full  height  at  every 
angle ;  noble  windows  fill  the  centre  of  each 
bay  in  the  stage  above  and  admit  light 
through  pierced  stone  tracery  into  the 
interior;  two  windows  under  the  wall  ribs 
flank  the  apse.  The  door  is  a  low  round 
arch,  a  third  of  a  circle,  with  the  Patri¬ 
archal  cross  “j“  carved  on  the  tympanum, 

with  the  hood-moulding  carved  in  dog¬ 
tooth,  and  a  leaf  on  the  abacus  at  the 
jamb. 7  Shafts  and  capitals  are  lost.  The 
corbels  under  the  roof  are  fluted  in  four 
scallops,  horizontally,  the  nearest  thing  to 
this  being  the  supports  of  the  cornice  at 

King  Ty¬ 
balt  in  the 
Taurus 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

3i8 

W  AY  OF  S .  JAMES 

Celanova 

Celanova,  where  the  Mozarabic  work  goes 
back  to  the  ninth  or  tenth  century.  The 
cornice  is  a  shallow  hollow  in  which  lie 

also 

Cuenca 

balls,— a  Romanesque  motive  in  Spain, 
already  seen  about  Jaca  and  on  the  way  to 
S.  Juan  de  la  Pena.  The  lantern,  floored 
and  blocked  up,  like  that  of  S.  Cruz  de  la 
Seros,  has  a  small,  round-headed  window 
in  each  face  and  a  column  with  blunt 
capital  at  each  comer,  a  heavy  comice, 
and  a  door  that  opens  on  the  western  side, 
to  which  lead  steps  from  the  staircase 
tower.  This  lantern  and  the  access  to  it 

and 

Fr6mista 

resemble  probably  those  originally  at  S. 
Martin  of  Fromista.  The  roof,  like  that 
of  Eunate,  consists  of  heavy  slabs  of  stone, 
now  well  sunk  in  mortar.  It  carried  once 
a  stone  cross  over  all,  but  that  being 
destroyed  not  long  since  by  a  thunder¬ 
storm,  a  clock  was  set  in,  of  which  the  face 
occupies  the  south  wall,  and  the  weights 
hang  down,  outside,  in  the  north-west  angle 
between  church  and  tower. 

Inside,  a  low  stone  bench  runs  all  around, 
and  the  shafts  of  the  lower  range  have 
disappeared,  but  their  capitals,  billet 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


319 


moulded,  project  from  a  string  course  of 
the  same  pattern,  and  on  these  descend 
the  upper  columns.  Outside  and  inside, 
the  church  has  a  tripartite  division  marked 
by  horizontal  lines :  without,  one  crosses  at 
the  springing  of  the  wall  arch,  and  the 
other  at  the  sills  of  the  windows:  within, 
one  at  the  point  where  the  arch  of  the  apse 
springs,  and  the  other  where  the  dome-ribs 
and  the  vault  begin.  The  capitals  of  the  Capitals 
upper  range  are  varied:  an  oriental  rosette 
of  whorls,  a  centaur,  a  formal  pattern  based 
on  the  honeysuckle,  pine  cones,  a  leaf 
pattern  based  on  the  acanthus,  network, 
leaf  and  pine  cone,  leaves  in  two  rows 
forming  a  rich  and  broken  pattern.  It  is 
vaulted  with  ribs  that  pass  across  and 
leave  an  open  star  at  the  centre:  these 
come  down  on  the  shafts  just  named,  at  the 
corners,  and  on  corbels  fluted  like  those  and  vaults 
without,  in  the  middle  of  each  side.  This 
sort  of  vault  Street  saw  in  a  chapel  of  the 
cloister  at  Salamanca,  and  the  present 
writer  saw  in  one  at  Las  Huelgas.  It  is 
Mudejar:  the  workmen  may  have  come 
from  the  Mozarabic  quarter  of  Calatayud, 

I 

AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


320 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Mozarabic 

and 

Templar 

or  from  elsewhere:  in  1211,  a  certain 
Miguel  de  Burgana  gave  to  the  Prior  and 
the  Canons  a  Saracen  slave  that  he  had  in 
Gotor. 8  In  the  vault  appear  eight  tiny 
windows  of  pierced  stone,  crowned  with 
Mudejar  cusping  like  some  at  Toledo,  and 
by  tabernacles,  “heavenly  Jerusalems” 
like  those  of  the  school  of  Chartres.  The 
same  sort  of  tabernacle  reappears  on  a 
capital  at  Sangiiesa,  which  belonged  to  S. 
John  of  the  Hospital,  at  Villasirga,  which 
was  a  Templar’s  church,  at  Carrion  close 
by,  and  at  Moarbes  copied  from  Carrion, 
but  these  are  not  the  only  instances,  even 
along  the  way.  In  the  case  of  Sangiiesa, 
Torres,  and  Villasirga,  it  may  refer  to  the 
earthly  Jerusalem,  of  which  the  lords  in 
somesenseall  were  knights.  At  theentrance 
to  the  sanctuary,  where  under  a  pointed 
arch  a  section  of  pointed  barrel-vault  pre¬ 
cedes  the  semi-dome,  stand  two  columns 
with  well  moulded  bases  and  storied  capitals : 
on  the  north,  the  Deposition  in  a  form  that 
seems  copied  from  Master  Benedetto’s  at 
Parma,9  on  the  south,  the  empty  Sepulchre 
left  after  the  Resurrection,  as  at  Arles. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

321 

The  design,  on  the  abacus  I  do  not  under¬ 
stand,  unless  it  was  imitated  from  metal 
work.  In  the  upper  part  of  the  two  bays 
nearest  the  apse,  windows  open,  their  jamb 
shafts  duly  storied  in  the  Romanesque  vein. 

Here,  then,  is  oddly  assorted  matter, 
gathered  up  by  the  side  of  the  Way:  capi¬ 
tals  derived  from  Greek,  from  Roman, 
from  Romanesque,  and  from  Oriental 
sources,  handiwork  recalling  Mudejar, 
French,  and  Italian  artizans.  The  re¬ 
miniscence  of  Parma  might  seem  far¬ 
fetched,  on  the  writer’s  part,  or  fortuitous 
on  the  sculptor’s,  were  it  not  for  another 
still  more  striking  at  Estella,  in  the  Last 
Supper  of  S.  Sepulcro  there.  Thus  it  falls 
into  place,  and  clinches  the  link  already 
forged,  in  old  records,  of  pilgrims  passing 
along  the  great  routes.  It  is  possible  that 
whoever  brought  the  design  of  the  Deposi¬ 
tion,  brought  also  the  way  of  building, 
having  seen  Master  Benedetto’s  Baptistery, 
commenced  in  1196,  well  under  way;  and, 
though  simplifying,  imitated  the  structure. 
One  more  note :  I  recall  at  this  moment  only 
j  two  places  in  which  a  window  is  pierced  at 

Sources 

AND  MONOGRAPHS' 

T 

322 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Another 

pilgrim- 

route 

“Iconium's 
turban'd 
Soldan”. . . 

the  point  where  a  plane  is  tangential  to  a 
curved  wall:  these  are,  the  apses  in  the 
Terra  di  Bari,  at  Bitonto  and  Bari,  for  in¬ 
stance,  and  these  windows  in  the  dome  of 
the  Sepulcro.  Now  all  that  Terra  di  Bari 
was  full  of  pilgrims  and  crusaders,  arriving 
and  departing;  Trani  was  an  important  sea¬ 
port.  Straight  through  it  ran  the  road  to 
Brindisi.  Lombard  builders  and  French 
were  there:  Roland  too;  the  knights,  Oli¬ 
ver,  Archbishop  Turpin,  and  all  the  Chan¬ 
son  de  Roland  on  the  cathedral  pavement. 
Though  there  are  examples  in  the  high¬ 
lands  of  Asia  Minor,  recorded  by  Miss 
Lowthian  Bell,  of  the  apse-windows,  I  am 
notawarethat  this  particular  architectural 
device  in  domes  is  oriental:  if  it  was  in¬ 
vented  in  Italy,  returning  travellers  might 
bring  it  with  them;  if  in  the  Anatolian 
plateau,  then  the  Crusaders  of  Navarre. 
Their  trobador  king  Theobald,  who  had 
embarked  with  them  at  Marseilles  in  1239, 
led  them  straight  into  the  Taurus  to  fight 
the  Soldan  of  Iconium. 10  The  road  into 
France  ran  by  Parma,  Borgo  S.  Donnino, 
and  Modena,  and  the  road  from  France 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

323 

to  Santiago  passed  near  S.  Cruz  and  S. 
Juan  de  la  Pena,  through  lands  certainly  ol 
the  latter.  So  this  exotic  church  need  not 
be  fetched  like  the  Holy  House  of  Loreto, 
through  the  air:  there  is  a  good  road  all 
the  way. 

A  good 
road 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

324 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

VI 

TOWN  CHURCHES 

Arga,  Ega  y  Aragon, 
hazen  a  Ebro  varon. 

In  the  midst  of  vineyard  and  olive- 
garth,  with  noble  approaches  and  skilful 
gradients,  the  road  runs  fast,  past  Puente 
la  Reyna  and  Cirauqui,  down  to  Estella 
on  the  Ega.  After  you  have  crossed  the 
Queen’s  Bridge,  there  is  a  great  patch 
of  green  and  bosky  mountain-side  to  get 
around  by  long  white  loops  of  road,  but 
for  the  most  of  the  way,  little  towns  lie 
close:  Maneru,  where  ancient  houses  stand 
about  a  mountain  stream,  and  which  be¬ 
longed  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century 
to  S.  John  of  Jerusalem,  and  as  late  as  the 
sixteenth  paid  heavy  taxes  to  el  Crucifijo, 
just  back  there  on  the  road:  Cirauqui,  that 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

325 

climbs  surprisingly  up  the  rock  and  rears 
a  church  portal  reddish  brown  like  porphyry, 
pointed  and  cusped  and  ripoussS  with 
innumerable  mouldings, 1  two  church  towers 
further  away  ennobling  the  steep  streets. 
By  Lorca  the  grey  of  olives  hangs  like 
smoke  over  the  brown  soil;  Lacar  huddles 
among  low  vineyards;  in  other  towns 
unnamed  a  flat  mail-bag  is  dropped  or  a 
letter  snatched,  without  stopping,  from  a 
waiting  woman.  After  Villatuerta,  twice 
burned  in  the  Middle  Age,  the  road  de¬ 
clines  into  the  softer  valley  of  the  Ega, 
where  fruit-trees  dispute  the  enclosure 
with  grape  and  olive,  and  the  retreating 
hillsides  are  terraced  into  gardens.  The 
Ega,  green  like  a  Swiss  torrent  and  flecked 
with  white,  draws  the  road  swiftly  up  its 
course  and  past  a  straggling  suburb  of 
mills  and  tanneries,  over  which  towers  the 
Apostolado  of  S.  Sepulchre:  at  last  the  road 
broadens  and  pauses  at  Estella. 

The  phrase  used  regularly  for  these 
towns  is  the  just  one,  they  are  situated  on 
the  old  road,  that  is  to  say  alongside  it.  A 
French  highway,  as  you  follow  it,  runs 

Little 

towns 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

326 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

High  street 

into  a  village  and  out  again,  and  the  High 
Street  of  English  towns  is  often  a  segment 
merely  of  the  line  stretched  from  sea  to 
sea.  But  here  the  little  towns  draw  their 
walls  about  them,  and  lock  out  the  passing 
troops,  the  tramping  pilgrims:  even  where, 
as  at  Estella,  a  suburb  throve  on  the 
farther  bank  of  the  river,  still  there  was 
a  clear  track  left  for  the  road  and  those 
upon  it,  against  which  gates  could  be 
barred. 

When  Sancho  Ramirez  was  building  the 
Pilgrims’  Road  he  determined  that  it 
should  pass  thereby  and  a  town  be  estab¬ 
lished.  The  monks  of  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena 
held  a  place  less  than  a  league  off,  Zarapur 
by  name,  and  they  wanted  the  road  to  go 
their  way  and  bring  traffic  and  custom  of 
sorts.  The  story  reads  like  the  early  history 
of  railways,  in  the  intrigues  and  pressure 
brought  to  bear.  The  king  won,  after  a 
fashion,  the  road  passes  through  Estella, 
but  he  had  to  yield  to  the  monks  what 
tithes  and  churches  were  just  coming  into 
being,  and  a  tenth  of  the  royal  rights.  As 
late  as  1174  the  abbey  was  adjusting 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

The  Thursday  Market  in  Estella 


THE  WAY 


matters  with  the  Bishop  of  Pampektna,  and 
keeping  in  its  own  hands  the  control  of  S. 
Miguel  and  S.  Sepulcro,  while  S.  Pedro  la 
Rua  remained  as  always  a  direct  depen¬ 
dency.  Sancho  the  Wise,  when  he  founded 
the  church  of  S.  John  and  peopled  its 
parish,  gave  it  to  another  monastery  — 
Irache.  After  that  things  went  easier: 
townsfolk  bought  rights  for  themselves,— 
that  Thursday  market  under  Jehane’s 
window  they  purchased  from  Theobald  I.2 

A  sweet  place  it  is,  and  a  comfortable, 
the  burgher  using  always  to  sleep  soft  and 
feed  high.  Aymery  Picaud  stayed  there, 
and  liked  the  cooking:  he  praised  the  bread, 
the  fish,  the  wine.  We  stayed  there  long, 
in  the  Casa  de  Gorgonio  that  outlanders 
would  call  the  Hotel  Comercio,  where  the 
son  of  the  house  is  a  heaven-bom  cook,  and 
about  whose  aufs  d  la  Bfxhamel  Jehane 
still  feels  as  felt  Aymery  about  the  fish. 
The  house  was  clean,  kind,  and  quiet.  We 
had  choice,  on  arriving,  of  two  dining¬ 
rooms  :  whether  to  eat  at  a  little  table  quite 
alone  in  the  room  except  when  motor-people 
stopped  for  luncheon  or  dinner  and  hurried 

HISPANIC  NOTES 


329  I 


Thursday 

market 


330 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

M  esa 
redonda 

on,  or  for  a  lesser  price,  at  the  long  table, 
which  Spaniards  idiomatically  call  mesa 
redonda,  partake  of  the  identical  meal 
served  hotter.  There  we  elected  to  practise 
Spanish  and  good  manners.  On  the  rare 
occasions  above  mentioned  it  accom¬ 
modated  the  chauffeur  at  the  other  end, 
but  he  looked  as  a  rule  more  interesting 
than  his  employers,  and  had  always  more 
to  tell  that  was  wanted  about  roads  and 
distances,  inns  and  connexions. 

The  upper  town,  called  Lygara,  was 
peopled  by  Sancho  Ramirez  at  the  end  of 
the  eleventh  century  with  francos — which 
may  mean  free  men  and  may  mean  French¬ 
men,  i.  e.,  subjects  from  the  north  side  of 
the  Pyrenees.  El  Parral,  the  vine-garth 
around  S.  Miguel,  was  constituted  by 
Sancho  the  Wise  in  1187,  who  gave  the 
same  rights  as  other  freemen  enjoyed  on 
condition  of  a  sort  of  ground-rent.  In  the 
same  year  he  had  founded  the  church  of 
S.  John  on  the  Sands,  in  the  river-side 
place  called  cl  Arcnal,  in  which  the  Jews 
congregated.  This  he  gave  to  the  monastery 
of  Irache.  The  town  was  reduced  under  a 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


single  government  only  in  1266,  by  the 
Frenchman  Theobald  I.  The  Jews,  who 
had  enjoyed  by  the  laws  of  Navarre  liberty 
of  person  and  property,  were  under  the 
same  king  driven  out  of  their  quarter; 
they  gathered  in  the  steep  streets  around 
the  castle,  and  walled  their  Ghetto,  which 
however  was  sacked  with  slaughter  in  1322 
under  the  direction  of  a  Franciscan  friar 
Pedro  Olligorzan.  In  1329  the  townsfolk 
again  sacked  the  Ghetto,  though  walled 
and  gated:  the  land  where  it  stood  still 
lies  waste.  Later  on,  when  in  1492  the  Jews 
were  expelled  from  Castile  and  Aragon,  the 
queen  and  king  of  Navarre,  Catherine  and 
jean  de  Labrit,  wrote  to  the  governing 
body  of  Estella  to  give  the  exiled  Jews  free 
passage  and  aid,  and  “give  settlement  in 
Estella  to  as  many  as  possible,  for  they  are 
a  docile  people,  easily  subject  to  reason.” 
In  the  end,  unfortunately,  the  king  of 
Navarre  had  to  yield  to  the  general  up¬ 
roar  and  the  fixed  policy  of  the  Catholic 
Kings,  and  the  Jews  had  to  move  on. 

The  truth  of  course  is  that  in  the  first 
place  they  were  too  prosperous,  and  in  the 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


33i 

jew- 

baiting 


I 


332 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Burgos, 

Bruges, 

and 

Estella 

second  place  the  feuds  between  Francos 
and  Navarros  had  been  patched  up  that 
year  of  1329,  and  the  town  had  need  of 
blood.  It  is  said  that  ten  thousand  died 
at  this  time  in  Estella  alone.  The  town, 
naturally,  throve.  When  after  the  battle 
of  Salado  the  value  of  gold  fell  by  one-sixth 
in  consequence  of  the  quantity  of  precious 
metal  in  the  booty  taken,  the  old  chroni¬ 
cles  state  that  the  effect  of  this  was  felt 
in  the  markets  of  Burgos,  Bruges,  and 
Estella,  these  being  the  greatest  trading 
centres.  As  early  as  1254  the  labia  de 
cambio  of  Estella  was  universal,  or  nearly. 
The  rich  merchants  filled  up,  in  the  thir¬ 
teenth  and  fourteenth  century,  the  streets 
that  the  Jews  had  built  above  the  river¬ 
side,  and  they  built  them  a  church  de¬ 
dicated  to  S.  Salvador  del  Arenal.  Early 
in  1264,  Theobald  I  had  given  to  the 
Dominicans  the  church  of  All  Saints  on 
the  hillside  above,  which  had  been  a 
synagogue  till  Garcia  Ramirez  el  Reslau- 
rador  gave  it  to  the  Bishop  of  Pampeluna. 

Commerce  flourished.  Alfonso  of  Cas¬ 
tile,  el  de  las  Navas,  on  February  1,  1205, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

333 

gave  to  the  merchants  of  Estella  the  right 
to  traffic  in  all  his  realms  and  lordships, 
without  any  person’s  impeding  them,  and 
Jaime  I  el  Conquistador,  in  midsummer  of 
1254,  gave  them  the  right  of  trade  and 
contract  in  all  his  realms  under  royal 
protection. 

The  merchants  had  the  best  of  it  at 
Estella,  but  at  times  they  had  suffered, 
like  those  elsewhere,  under  the  feet  of  their 
betters.  In  1206  Sancho  the  Strong  gave 
the  city  to  the  Lord  of  Vizcaya,  D.  Diego 
Lopez  de  Haro:  he  entrenched  himself  in 
the  castle  and  thence  made  raids  into 
Castile.  During  the  wars  of  Charles  the 
Bad,  the  men  of  Castile  lifted  the  cattle, 
and  burned  the  palaces  and  houses,  but 
in  1390  a  privilege  of  Charles  the  Noble 
gave  the  town  equal  rights  with  Pampe- 
luna.  The  fueros  of  Estella  are  often 
quoted  as  a  sort  of  norm  of  liberty.  In 
spite  of  the  Castilian  raids  and  the  flood 
of  1475,  when  the  river  Ega  rose  and 
destroyed  half  the  city  and  that  the  best, 
the  palace  of  the  Dukes  of  Granada  still 
remains  one  ot  the  few  grand  examples  of 

D.  Diego 
Ldpez  de 
Haro 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

334 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Domestic 

Roman¬ 

esque 

domestic  Romanesque.  The  carved  capi¬ 
tals  of  the  great  columns  have  the  vigour 
and  fire  of  the  cloister  at  Soria.  Other 
palaces  also,  fallen  from  their  high  estate, 
line  the  winding  street  that  leads  to  the 
church  of  the  Sepulchre.  The  castle  was 
destroyed  by  the  jealousy  of  Cisneros. 

The  luxury  of  the  fifteenth  century  is 
reflected  in  sumptuary  legislation  of  Charles 
the  Noble.  A  pragmatic  says: — “Inas¬ 
much  as  the  King  is  certified  that  the 
principal  cause  of  the  poverty  of  the  city 
consists  in  the  excessive  dressing  and 
ostentation  of  the  ladies  and  other  women, 
he  ordains,  taking  example  from  ancient 
princes  and  from  the  kings  of  Castile  and 
Aragon,  that  the  said  ladies  of  Estella 
shall  not  be  so  bold  as  to  wear  upon  them 
either  gold  or  silver,  in  chains  or  garlands, 
or  in  any  other  thing  excepting  girdles  and 
buttons  of  white  silver,  ungilt,  and,  if  they 
desire,  on  the  sleeves  only.  Further,  that 
they  may  not  wear  pearls  nor  precious 
stones,  orphreys  nor  toques,  nor  buttons 
where  there  is  a  gold  thread,  nor  furs  of 
gris,  except,  in  the  long  sleeves,  trimming 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

335 

of  otter  the  width  of  half  a  skin,  and  the 
purfles  of  the  front  of  a  mantle  a  finger 
broad  of  ermine,  no  more,  nor  wear  scar¬ 
let  cloth  nor  clothes  of  gold  or  silk.  .  .  . 
Licence,  however,  is  given  to  wear  clothes 
already  made  till  they  are  worn  out  but  not 
to  make  new.  Item,  this  ordinance  applies 
also  to  the  Jews.”3 

Not  only  were  there  French-bom  sub¬ 
jects  filling  the  quarters  of  Estella,  there 
were  French  shrines.  Sancho  the  Strong 
in  1201  built  and  endowed  a  sanctuary  for 
Our  Lady  of  Rocamadour,  just  about  at  the 
time  when  the  church  of  S.  Pedro  la  Rua 
was  building  too.  He  had  had  a  bad  time 
in  Africa,  and  once  safe  home,  he  gave  to 
the  Monastery  of  S.  Mary  of  Rocamadour, 
on  the  road  of  the  pilgrims  as  you  go  out 
of  Estella,  twenty-three  moneys  of  gold  in 
perpetuity,  charged  on  royal  rights  in  the 
Old  Slaughter-house,  and  eighteen  more 
charged  on  the  mills  of  Villatuerta.  Of 
this,  thirty-nine  was  for  lights  for  the 
Virgin’s  altar,  for  his  own  soul’s  good  and 
his  parents’;  of  the  other  two,  for  incense 
one,  the  other  for  a  preacher  on  certain 

A  sumptu¬ 
ary  prag¬ 
matic 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

336 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Fueros  de 

Navarra 

feasts.  The  ancient  fueros  of  Navarre  re¬ 
cognized  Rocamadour  as  a  privileged  place  of 
pilgrimage,  like  Rome,  Jerusalem,  S.  James, 
and  Overseas,  and  protected  debtors  during 
a  fortnight’s  absence: 

“  Ata  que  tiempo  non  deve  ser  peyndrado 
omne  que  va  en  romeria.  Nui  ynfanzon 
que  va  en  romeria  non  deve  ser  peyndrado 
ata  que  torne.  Si  va  a  S.  Jaime  deve  ser 
segure  un  mes;  a  Rocamador  XV  dias;  a 
Roma  III  meses;  a  Oltramar  un  aynno;  a 
Iherusalem  un  aynno  et  un  dia.”4 

Across  the  river  and  up  the  hill,  the  shrine 
of  Notre  Dame  du  Puy  is  referred  by  pious 
tradition  to  a  miraculous  apparition  of  stars 
in  1085.  It  is  more  likely  that  the  devotion 

The 

Mountain 

Mother 

came  from  the  greater  Virgin  of  the  same 
name  in  Velay,  whose  shrine  was  flourishing 
at  that  date  and  lay  on  a  pilgrim  route,  and 
whose  Bishop  in  the  tenth  century  had  gone 
to  S.  James.  The  miraculous  image  may 
be  of  the  thirteenth  century.  There  are 
only  two  documents,  in  the  archives  of  the 
city,  that  bear  upon  the  church:  in  one, 
dated  1386,  Charles  the  Noble  acknowl¬ 
edges  the  gift  of  some  mills  from  Mossen 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


Pedro  Godillo,  Prior  of  S.  Mary  of  the 
Peak  (5.  Maria  del  Puig) ;  in  the  other, 
dated  1174,  the  Bishop  of  Pampeluna  gives 
the  church  of  Puy  to  the  seventy  members 
of  the  brotherhood  of  Santiago  on  condi¬ 
tion  of  their  paying  three  maravedis  to  the 
Bishop  and  his  successors.  The  officers  of 
this  confraternity  included  in  1322,  D. 
Benedict  of  Limoges;  and  their  goods,  and 
those  of  the  Confraternity  of  Nuestra 
Senora  de  Salas,  were  in  the  hands  of 
Frenchmen  as  trustees:  Jean  Pate,  Dean 
of  Chartres,  Hugonde  Visac,  and  Alphonse 
Robray,  for  “it  was  not  intended  that  the 
said  goods  nor  any  part  of  them,  should  be 
put  in  the  power  of  our  lord  the  King.”5 

For  the  great  churches  we  hold  no  docu¬ 
ments,  and  must  read  as  we  may,  from  the 
stones,  of  their  buildings  and  rebuildings. 
About  1200  is  the  date  accepted  for  the 
cloister  of  S.  Pedro  la  Rua,  and  the  church 
itself,  with  well-pointed  arches,  can  hardly 
be  earlier.  It  lies  so  nearly  at  the  top  of  a 
steep  hill,  that  the  west  end  runs  blindly 
up  into  a  tower,  and  down  into  buttresses 
and  substructures,  and  the  main  doorway 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


337 


S.  Mary  of 
the  Peak 


S.  Peter 
Roadside 


338 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Portal 

occupies  the  second  bay  on  the  north, 
another  opposite,  of  pure  early  Gothic, 
admitting  to  the  hill-crowning  cloister. 
The  pointed  arches  of  the  north  door  are 
decorated  with  patterns,  billet,  dog-tooth, 
and  various  chevrons,  spirals  and  diapers, 
without  a  tympanum;  the  arch  curiously 
cusped  like  that  of  Cirauqui.  On  the  shafts 
in  the  jambs  the  capitals  are  partly  deco¬ 
rated  with  leaf  forms,  and  partly  with  very 
oriental  motives:  two  bearded  griffins 
afi route  on  one  jamb,  and  on  the  other  a 
mermaid  holding  her  two  tails,  a  centaur 
shooting  at  her,  and  a  superb  pair  of  woman- 
sphinxes,  crowned,  with  strong  curved 
wings  and  dragon  tails. 

The  church,  of  three  aisles,  without  a 
transept,  consists  of  three  bays  only,  with  a 
western  gallery  and  the  Coro  under  it.  In 
the  last  bay  of  the  north  aisle,  which  is 
pinched  off  at  the  comer  above  the  steep 
hillside,  stands  an  early  retable  with  a  gold 
ground.  The  nave  has  a  star-vault  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  aisles  a  strong  quad¬ 
ripartite  vault  with  moulded  ribs  and  large 
carved  bosses,  that  show  S.  Stephen  stoned, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

S.  Andrew  as  Bishop  blessing,  the  Agnus 
Dei,  etc.  The  piers,  once  cylindrical  with 
four  attached  columns,  are  most  of  them 
spoilt.  The  sanctuary  is  raised  eight  steps, 
a  rare  feature  in  Spain  outside  of  Catalonia 
and  rather  Italian-seeming.  It  is  hard  to, 
see  a  reason  here,  where  no  tomb  or  shrine  I 
occupies  a  .  crypt,  unless  in  mere  imitation. 
The  apses  have  a  bay  of  barrel-vault,  and 
then  a  semi-dome :  those  on  the  sides  open 
upon  the  central  by  arches  like  tomb  re¬ 
cesses;  the  central,  arcaded  within  and 
without,  has  in  addition  three  deep  niches 
which  on  the  outside  barely  show  as  inter¬ 
calated  buttresses  below  the  fine  Gothic 
corbels  that  sustain  the  cornice,  but  with¬ 
in  constitute  true  apsidioles.  In  brief, 
the  plan  of  this  apse  is  French;  it  corre-j 
spends  to  that  of  Souillac,  which  lies  only ! 
two  hours’  walk  from  Rocamador. 

The  church  still  keeps,  besides  its  relic 
of  S.  Andrew  fetched  from  Patras,  a  Ma¬ 
donna  of  Mercy;  a  fine  stone  statue  of  the 
late  thirteenth  century,  of  a  Bishop  prob¬ 
ably  S.  Andrew;  and  a  fifteenth  century 
wooden  figure  of  S.  Peter,  quite  delightful. 


AND  MONOGRAPHS'  I 


340 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Cloisters 

Of  the  cloister,  timber-rooted,  only  two 
sides  are  standing:  by  accounts  of  the  ruin 
it  seems  they  have  been  repaired  within 
a  generation.  The  northern  walk,  along 
the  church,  has  storied  capitals  and  the 
western,  leaf  forms  or  oriental  creatures. 
Here  are  the  sphinxes  and  manticores  and 
estriches  and  antelopes  that  Spain  in  the 
twelfth  century  received  from  Asian  lands. 

The  great  capitals  on  the  coupled  shafts 
are  historied  all  around,  commencing  all 
on  the  garden  side.  Beginning  here  at  the 
eastern  end,  they  read  on  as  follows: 

Figured 
on  p.  349 

The  first,  finest  of  all,  is  very  Byzan¬ 
tine:  on  the  narrow  sides  the  Harrowing 
of  Hell  and  Christ  as  Gardener,  on  the 
broader,  the  Entombment  and  Maries  at 
the  Tomb;  the  Sepulchre  itself,  a  dome 
with  curtains  and  a  hanging  lamp,  the 
carved  sarcophagus,  set  high  on  four 
legs,  and  in  the  last  scene,  half  open,  the 
winding-sheet  hanging  over  as  at  Arles, 
the  angels  sweeping  down  with  censers, 
are  all  of  more  loveliness,  softer  yet  more 
poignant,  than  Europe  then  produced 
ungrafted. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

34i 

2.  The  three  kings  on  horseback 
before  Herod;  he  talks  to  soldiers  and 
they  bring  him  babies’  heads;  the 
Massacre. 

3.  The  Annunciation;  Visitation  and 
Presentation;  Announcement  to  Shep¬ 
herds;  and  Epiphany. 

4.  Soldiers  fight  a  lion  and  a  griffin, 
and  savages  fight  on  the  broad  faces, 

men  and  lions  on  the  narrower. 

5.  History  of  S.  Vincent. 

6.  History  of  S.  Andrew,  including 

In  the  city 

his  interview  with  devils. 

of  the 

7.  History  of  S.  Andrew’s  dealings 
with  the  proconsul,  one  Egeas,  including 
his  preaching,  judgement,  and  martyr¬ 
dom  when  he  said  “If  I  doubted  the 
gibbet  of  the  cross  I  would  not  preach 
the  glory  thereof.”6 

8.  Saintly  story',  I  think  the  close  of 
S.  Andrew’s  legend. 

9.  .  Corner:  nine  shafts  in  all,  with 
leaf  motives,  of  a  kind  that  occur  at 
Soria  and  in  the  oldest  cloister  at  Las 
Huelgas. 

Man-  f 

Eaters 

On  the  western  side  the  devices,  as  I 

said,  are  very  oriental,  including  birds, 

AND  MONOGRAPHS- 

1 

342 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

long-necked  and  twisted,  what  the  elder 

Entirely 

oriental 

English  called  mantigers,  birds  pecking, 
head  to  head  or  back  to  back,  sphinxes 
kissing,  small  lions  regardant  above  leaves 
of  honeysuckle.  These  are  very  like  some 
at  Silos;  they  are  quite  unlike  the  Ro¬ 
manesque  motives  that  came  through 
France  and  may  be  seen  at  Fontevrault, 
S.  Eutropius  of  Saintes,  S.  Juan  de  la 
Pena  and  S.  Pedro  of  Soria.  It  cannot 
be  said  too  strongly  that  they  are  not 
in  the  least  French,  even  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  word  is  used  of  the  portal  of  S. 
Miguel. 

S.  Michael 

Though  round-arched,  this  great  door  of 

on  a  Mount 

S.  Miguel  belongs  at  earliest  to  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  porch 
enclosing  it  to  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth. 
The  earliest  part,  probably,  is  the  row  of 
eight  apostles  and  prophets,  who  cannot 
have  been  intended  for  the  place  in  which 
they  now  stand,  on  either  side  the  arch. 
They  appear  to  be  copied  from  the  Prophets 

1117 

at  Cremona.  It  seems  indeed  as  though 
they  must  have  been  designed  for  just  such 
a  grand  row  as  that  at  Cremona,  which  was 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

343 

perhaps  imitated  later  at  S.  Sepulcro  of 
Estella.  Next  comes  the  doorway  proper, 
with  the  capitals  of  the  jamb  shafts,  the 
tympanum,  and  the  sculptured  archivolts. 
Here  also  appear  traces  of  a  pentimienlo,  for 
the  figures  do  not  quite  attain  the  just 
centre,  in  the  successive  rows,  and  for  the 
four  and  twenty  elders  there  is  not  space 
enough  to  accommodate  three  couples  who 
are  tucked  into  the  spandrel  spaces  outside. 
Latest,  and  of  finer  and  more  sensitive 
work,  are  the  great  sculptures  that  flank 
the  jambs,  of  angels  killing  the  dragon  and 
weighing  the  souls,  and  talking  with  the 
Maries  at  the  tomb.  None  of  this  work 
recalls  in  the  least  that  of  Toulouse.  The 
iconography  of  the  scene  last  mentioned  is 
that  of  Provence.  Now  precisely  from 
Arles  and  S.  Gilles  came  the  great  rectangu¬ 
lar  sculptured  slabs,  adapted  by  workmen 
of  the  school  of  Toulouse  to  use  in  the 
Cloister  at  Silos.  This  work  was  known  at 
Estella,  where  the  cloister  of  S.  Pedro  was 
under  way,  and  the  slabs  were  adapted  by 
some  inventive  master  to  the  fagade  on 
either  side  the  door,  possibly  with  knowl- 

Angelical 

activities 

AND  MONOGRAPHS. 

I 

344 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Icono¬ 

graphy 

edge  of  what  Master  Nicholas  had  done, 
in  the  same  way,  at  S.  Zeno  of  Verona. 

In  the  tympanum  you  have  Christ  amid 
the  tetramorph,  between  SS.  Mary  and 
John  Evangelist ;  a  solemn  majestic  Christ 
seated  within  a  beautiful  four-lobed  man- 
dorla,  His  book  marked  with  the  chrism. 
In  the  arch i volts,  row  by  row,  are  ranged 
all  the  company  of  heaven : 

1.  Six  censing  angels; 

2.  Eighteen  of  the  twenty-four  elders, 
crowned  and  making  music,  the  other 
six,  as  said,  being  placed  elsewhere; 

3.  Ten  prophets  with  scrolls; 

4  and  5.  Groups  illustrating  saintly 
legends  —  S.  Martin  and  the  Beggar,  S. 
Vincent,  S.  Peter,  Tobit,  Esther,  etc. 

The  capitals  run,  from  east  to  west,  on 
one  side:  (1)  Annunciation;  (2)  Visitation 
and  Nativity,  the  Blessed  Virgin  lying  in 
bed;  (3)  Cradle  with  ox  and  ass,  Shep¬ 
herds;  (4)  Epiphany;  (5)  Presentation. 

On  the  other  side:  (1)  Flight  into 
Egypt;  (2)  Herod  and  the  Kings;  (3) 
Massacre  of  the  Innocents;  (4)  and  (5) 
the  scheme  breaks  down  in  an  interlace, 
a  man  killing  pretty  little  dragons. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

345 

Finally,  the  great  reliefs  show,  on  the 
left,  S.  Michael  overthrowing  the  dragon 
to  S.  Gabriel’s  admiration,  Abraham 
holding  souls  in  his  bosom,  and  S. 
Michael  and  the  devil  weighing  out 
more;  on  the  right,  two  angels  at  the 
half-open  sepulchre,  tiny  soldiers  asleep 
below,  and  three  Maries  with  lovely 
spice  boxes.7 

Weighing 

Souls 

The  themes  and  treatment  belong  to  the 
cathedral  builders  of  the  Royal  Domain, 
and  the  technique,  the  actual  forms,  are 
Spanish.  In  the  treatment  of  the  hair  and 
eyes  I  am  reminded  of  the  earlier,  barbar¬ 
ous  style  of  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena,  and  some 
faces  in  the  archivolts,  one,  for  instance, 
in  the  story  of  Tobias,  have  the  curious 
Greco-Buddhist  air  of  those  at  S.  Tomas  of 
Soria,  which  seems  to  be  a  graft  of  that 
same  stock.  The  only  way  to  account 
for  these  incoherencies  is  to  suppose  suc¬ 
cessive  workmen  in  charge:  a  Spaniard 
superseded  by  a  Frenchman,  and  the 
scheme,  which  came  from  the  north, 
carried  out  by  workmen  imported  from 
other  parts,  from  Aragon  chiefly.  On  the 

Successive 

workmen 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

i 

346 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Ill- 

assorted 

dates 

one  hand,  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena  owned  this 
church,  and  on  the  other,  Alfonso  Sanchez 
el  Batallador  was  raiding  Soria  at  about 
this  time. 

Unfortunately  it  is  impossible  to  delay 
the  hypothetical  rebuilding  of  the  door 
to  the  time  when  the  church  was  altered, 
for  this  was  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
nave,  of  four  bays,  is  of  late  Gothic,  the 
vaulting  and  the  capitals  that  belong  to 
it  are  quite  Renaissance  in  character. 
The  aisles  are  quadripartite-vaulted  with 
large  bosses,  the  nave  piers  compound, 
with  shafts  in  all  the  angles.  The  north 
transept  is  early,  a  bay  and  a  half  deep: 
the  south  transept  of  two  bays  with  a  great 
middle-pointed  window.  The  apse  belongs 
to  the  earlier  building,  preceded  by  a  deep 
bay  of  pointed  barrel-vault  before  the 
semi-dome;  the  side  apses  have  simply  a 
pointed  semi-dome,  and  on  the  north  side  a 
window  over  that,  and  a  shallower  apse  in 
the  half  bay.  The  south  doorway,  opening 
on  a  tiny  walled  garden,  is  early  Gothic  in 
character,  the  capitals  a  sort  of  belated 
transitional,  like  an  outgrowth  from  Irache. 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

347 

These  two  churches,  S.  Pedro  and  S. 
Miguel,  lying  both  on  hilltops,  are  both' 
pinched  in  the  last  bay  of  the  aisle;  S. 
Pedro  on  the  north  and  S.  Miguel  on  the 
south.  Both  want  a  triforium  and  a 
clerestory,  and  the  two  are  very  like  in 
style,  a  style  suited  to  wealthy  merchants, 
open,  comfortable,  pleasant,  and  pretty, 
in  which  one  may  move  about  freely  to  see 
and  be  seen.  It  is  an  inland  solution  ol  the 
same  problem  that  Jayme  Fabre  and  the 
other  Catalans  were  to  settle  after  their 
own  fashion,  and  that  the  churches  of 
Betanzos,  near  Corunna,  met  just  as  well. 
Almost  as  much  as  early  Renaissance 
building,  is  it  the  expression  of  a  moment  of 
ease  and  expansion,  the  sort  of  scene  in 
which  to  lay  the  opening  of  the  Decameron. 

The  tale  of  the  churches  is  not  yet  half 
told,  and  two  at  least  cannot  be  ignored, 
that  occupy  almost  a  whole  suburb,  S. 
Sepulchre  and  S.  Dominic. 

To  two  monks  of  S.  Dominic,  Fray 
Miguel  and  Fray  Fortunio,  in  1264,  Theo¬ 
bald  II  gave  the  church  of  All  Saints,  that 
which  had  earlier  been  a  synagogue.  At 

Merchants* 

Churches 

AND  MONOGRAPHS  j  I 

34§ 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

A  king- 

kept 

convent 

the  king’s  request  five  years  before,  Alex¬ 
ander  IV  had  given  a  Bull,  the  Bishop  of 
Pampeluna  conceded  indulgences,  and  the 
friars  preached  well  and  to  the  purpose. 
The  convent  grew  upon  the  hillside,  rich 
and  gracious;  Philip  the  Fair  and  Queen 
Joan  gave  baths  and  a  tower;  Louis  le 
Hutin  in  1307  ordered  the  Jews  to  build  up 
a  wall  between  the  convent  garden  and  the 
Ghetto;  a  great  knight  and  a  king’s  grand¬ 
son,  D.  Nuno  Gonzalez  de  Lara,  in  the 
fourteenth  century  bequeathed  his  sword 
and  his  right  arm.  The  ruined  church 
stares  from  the  hillside,  wrapped  in  ivy. 
Above  the  refectory  the  pointed  arches  that 
once  sustained  a  vast  barrel-vault  still 
stand,  sharp  against  the  blue,  but  of  the 
church  or  the  cloister  little  is  to  be  seen 
except  the  plan  of  a  mighty  nave,  as  well 
suited  to  the  Friars  Preachers  as  the  T- 
shaped  plan  of  Italian  churches,  and  a 
chapel  and  chapter-room  eastward,  that, 
given  also  by  Count  Nuno  Gonzalez, 
wear  the  delicate  and  refined  grace  that  the 
fourteenth  century  kept  in  remote  places.8 

Like  the  other  churches  of  Estella,  that 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

Capital  at  Estella 


THE  WAY 

351 

of  S.  Sepulchre  is  entered  from  the  north 
side;  and  Sr.  Madrazo9  is  probably  right, 
in  his  suggestion  that  the  church  which 
now  stands  is  merely  the  north  aisle  of 
a  great  one  projected  and  half-ruined, 
perhaps  never  finished. 

Some  church  of  the  Sepulchre  there  was 
in  the  twelfth  century,  for  in  1174  S.  Juan 
de  la  Pena,  renouncing  others,  still 
keeps  peaceful  possession  of  S.  Michael’s, 
S.  Nicholas,  and  S.  Sepulchre. 1 0  When  it 
came  to  be  rebuilt,  “the  merchants  made 
the  door  or  portal,’’  says  the  Licenciate 
Lezaun  describing  it  in  the  eighteenth 
century  with  more  enthusiasm  than  sense 
as  “having  images  of  saints  in  half  re¬ 
lief  and  others  full-figured,  admirable  in 
sculpture  and,  stuck  to  the  wall  of  the 
church,  some  tombs  or  ossuaries  with  stones 
which  denote  great  antiquity.”11 

The  innumerable  thin  mouldings  of  the 
sharply  pointed  archivolt,  the  late  thick 
leafage  of  the  very  small  jamb-capitals,  and 
the  arching  of  the  tomb  recesses  on  either 
side,  the  cusped  arches  of  the  curious  ar¬ 
cade  under  the  roof,  the  statues  flanking 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

I 

352 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

the  door,  and  the  very  exquisite  sculptures 
of  the  tympanum,  belong  to  the  late  four¬ 
teenth  century — a  little  preceding  that 
loveliest  of  the  cloister  doors  at  Pampeluna 
which  offers  a  passage  into  the  canons’  gar¬ 
den.  In  the  peak  at  S.  Sepulchre  is  fig¬ 
ured  the  Crucifixion  with  Longinus  blinded, 
and  another  pagan,  besides  SS.  Mary 
and  John:  under  that,  in  a  row,  the 
Sepulchre  with  soldiers  sleeping  below,  and 
an  angel  sitting  above,  the  three  Maries, 
Christ  bringing  up  the  patriarchs  from  the 
yawning  jaws  of  hell,  and  the  Noli  Me 
Tangcre.  On  the  lintel  is  set  a  beautifully 

Cena 

ordered  Last  Supper,  far  more  solemn  than 
those  at  Pampeluna  or  Toledo.  It  closely 
resembles  that  on  the  related  portal  at 
Ujue,  but  it  would  seem  that  these  two 
astonishing  architraves  are  not  copied 
one  from  the  other  but  both,  with  dis¬ 
coverable  likenesses  and  variations,  from 
the  Modena-Parma-Pistoja  group.12 

Estella  and 

It  is  pretty  plain,  from  the  mouldings  cf 

Uju6 

these  two  doors,  the  forms  of  the  bases  to 
the  wide  jambs,  and  the  treatment  of  the 
capitals,  that  the  portals  as  they  stand  are 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


the  work  of  one  man.  These  elements  show 
precisely  that  likeness  without  identity, 
which  is  impossible  to  a  copyist.  The 
sculptures  of  the  door  at  Ujuts  must  be 
later  than  the  lintel  here,  but  the  group  of 
the  Epiphany  is  more  Gothic  in  its  vivacity 
of  action  and  relative  simplicity  of  drapery 
than  the  tympanum  sculptures  at  Estella. 
At  dJju6,  in  somewhat  the  same  way,  the 
apostles  at  the  table  are  very  deliberately 
individualized.  On  the  architrave  at  Es¬ 
tella  they  are  kept  back  in  a  straight  line, 
and  the  conscious  quaintness  of  Judas’s 
position,  at  the  front  of  the  table,  is  given 
up.  We  can,  more  or  less,  date  the  door 
of  Ujue:  Madrazo  says1 3  he  has  reason  to 
believe  that  it  was  built,  like  the  nave, 
under  Charles  the  Bad,  who  died  in  1387. 

The  Apostolado  that  flanks  this  portal 
directly  under  the  roof,  is  certainly  earlier 
than  the  doorway  and  not  made  for  the 
present  place;  earlier  than  the  statues  of 
Olite;  and  in  situation  more  surprising. 
Its  position  is  like  that  of  the  sculptures 
at  Carrion,  Benevivere  and  Moarbes,  that 
lie  along  the  Way.  In  the  figures  of  the 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


353 


One  artist 


Apostolado 


354 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

One  style 

Apostles  may  still  be  traced  the  same 
style  as  on  the  portal  of  S.  Miguel,  in  the 
conventions  of  eyes,  of  head,  and  of  hair; 
both  short  and  curled,  and  long  and  waving. 
The  style,  however,  is  dying  out.  If  a 
great  church  was  planned  on  this  site,  the 
figures  may  have  been  intended  for  the 
western  facade  as  at  Carrion,  and  when 
the  plan  was  abandoned  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  the  main  portal  established  in 
the  flank  of  the  north  aisle,  the  architect 
put  it  under  the  roof,  in  a  square-headed 
arcade,  gave  up  the  Apocalyptic  Christ  at 
the  centre  and,  copying  the  portal,  with 
variations,  from  S.  Cernin,  adorning  the 
angle  of  the  archivolts  with  six  little 
angels,  he  set  the  transfigured  Saviour 
alone,  on  the  finial  that  crowns  the  arches, 
which  has  a  little  roof  all  to  itself,  lifted 

in  two 

genera¬ 

tions 

above  the  rest.  He  carved  the  tympanum 
suitably  to  the  dedication  in  a  style  not 
identical  but  possibly  contemporary  with 
the  corresponding  one  at  Pampeluna,  and 
then  underneath  that  tympanum,  and 
below  the  level  of  the  jamb-capitals,  he 
set  a  lintel  left  on  his  hands  from  the 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


abandoned  western  doorway,  carved  half 
a  century  before  with  the  Last  Supper  in 
imitation  of  that  at  Pistoja. 

If  the  patient  reader  enquires  why 
Pistoja,  the  answer  is,  first  of  all,-  because  it 
looks  like  that  one,  and  secondly,  that  the 
connection  was  facile,  for  Pistoja  claimed 
a  relic  of  S.  James  and  was  in  constant 
relation  with  the  shrine  of  Compostella, 
men  coming  and  going  incessantly  along 
the  road:  the  reader  will  then  recall  Bishop 
Gelmirez’s  Maestrescuela  called  Ramiro: 
and  his  letter  to  his  friend  S.  Aton,  abbot  of 
S.  Giacomo  in  Pistoja,  for  some  articles 
to  be  sent  by  the  pilgrims. 

The  streets  of  Estella,  excepting  that 
one  which  runs  past  the  Ayuntamiento 
toward  S.  Sepulchre  in  which  palace 
chambers  now  lodge  donkeys  and  goats, 
are  comfortable  and  friendly;  the  squares 
simple,  their  soportales  rather  like  the 
Rows  in  Chester.  The  city  in  greatness 
was  commercial  rather  than  courtly,  and 
this  is  the  end  thereof.  But  it  keeps  yet  a 
green  walk  by  the  green  water,  planted 
with  ancient  trees,  broad  and  grassy, 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


355 


Why 

Pistoja? 


Soportales 


356 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Green 

watersides 

Alvar 

Garcia 

and  Juan 

starred  in  spring  with  flowers,  cooled  in 
midsummer  by  the  swift  and  foam-flecked 
waters.  So  dense  the  leafage,  so  tall  and 
fresh  the  grass,  one  might  be  walking 
beside  the  Cher  or  the  stripling  Thames. 

Towii  churches,  like  those  of  Estella 
and  Sanguesa,  seem  to  have  been  built 
with  what  means  were  on  the  spot,  by  a 
king’s  initiative.  Neither  the  bishop  of 
the  diocese  nor  the  monastery  which  was 
lord  did  much  except  collect  tithes.  Es¬ 
tella  had  a  chantier  from  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  century  well  along  into  the 
fifteenth.  If  Alvar  Garcia  of  Estella  did 
not  plan  the  cathedral  and  fortification 
of  Avila,  in  1091,  as  Ponz  believed,14  yet 
the  plausibility  of  the  attribution  remains 
more  important  than  the  truth  of  it.  In 
1348  Pedro  Andreo,  who  was  master-mason 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Navarre,  took  charge 
by  royal  order  of  the  substructures  neces¬ 
sary  to  support  the  rock  on  which  stood  the 
chief  castle  of  Estella,  the  Castillo  Mayor. 
In  1387  Juan  Garcia  de  Laguardia,  had 
been  master-mason  in  his  turn,  who  died  in 
two  years,  and  his  place  was  taken  by  Mar- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

357 

tin  Perez  Desteilla,  which  is  to  say  de  Es- 
tella.  Charles  IV,  in  1399,  sends  this  Martin 

Martin 

P6rez 

Perez  de  Estella  to  work  at  Olite.  An 

order  on  the  king’s  treasurer  in  1438  calls 
for  the  payment  of  149  * libras  and  4 
sueldos  carlines  to  Angel  Dastean,  mazo- 
nero  y  vecino  de  Estella,  for  work  that 
he  had  directed  and  executed  in  the 
palaces  of  Olite  for  the  royal  marriage. 15 
The  work  done  in  Sangiiesa  by  other 
workmen  of  Estella  has  been  told  al¬ 
ready:  the  masons  of  Estella  were  famous 
and  were  great. 

Irache. 

“Operuit  monies  umbra  ejus: 
et  arbusta  ejus  cedrus  Dei.  ” 

Irache  lies  on  the  mountain-side  a  couple 
of  miles  away,  under  the  Mount  of  Jurra, 
protected  from  the  sickly  south  wind  that 
Shakespeare  disliked,  like  other  men  of  the 
Renaissance,  and  open  to  airs  from  north 
and  east,  that  are  cool  and  health-giving; 
once  set  thick  about  with  oaks  and  live- 
oaks.  That  the  Benedictine  foundation 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

358 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Monj  ardin 

was  very  ancient,  Yepes1  shows  reason  for 
supposing:  possibly  Visigothic,  it  persisted 
under  Moorish  rule.  It  is  said  that  when 
Sancho  II  of  Navarre  went  to  besiege  the 
castle  of  S.  Stephen  on  Monjardin,  he 
stopped  in  Irache  and  made  a  vow  to  Our 
Lady  there,  who  gave  him  victory  accord¬ 
ingly.  2  He  and  his  son,  D.  Garcia  Sanchez, 
it  seems,  are  buried  here.  To  his  son, 
the  Infant  D.  Ramiro  he  gave  among  other 
properties  the  church  and  honour  [estate] 
of  S.  Stephen  at  Monjardin;  this  D. 
Ramiro,  who  had  made  the  pilgrimage  to 
Rome  and  Jerusalem,  had  a  fate  like  Ban- 
quo’s  in  the  play 3 :  he  spent  his  last  years  at 
the  court  of  Castile  befriending  the  orphans 
of  his  hapless  brother  the  last  King  of 
Najera,  cl  de  Penalerr,  and  he  was  the 
grandfather  of  D.  Garcia  of  Navarre  called 
el  Restaur ador. 4  At  any  rate  D.  Garcia, 
el  dc  Najera ,  in  1045  exchanged  for  Mon¬ 
jardin  a  convent  called  S.  Maria  de  Hiart. 

This  same  hill  of  Monjardin,  it  will  be 
remembered,  baffled  for  long  the  editors 
of  chansons  de  geste,  until  M.  Bedier  had 
the  idea  of  looking  it  out,  geographically, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY  |  359 


in  the  place  where  it  belonged,  somewhere 
near  Esteila,  and  in  clearing  -up  one  point 
more  of  mere  scholarship  welded  one  more 
link  of  his  argument  that  the  chansons  de 
geste  grew  up  along  the  Pilgrim  Ways. 

Five  years  later  D.  Garcia  founded  a 
hospice  for  pilgrims  and  dowered  it  well. 
At  the  very  beginning  of  the  restoration  of 
the  Church  in  Spain  the  monastery  of 
Irache  was  very  rich,  and  it  came  by  the 
time  of  the  Renaissance  to  claim  nearly  all 
the  land  in  Esteila,  and  to  have  many 
monasteries  dependent  upon  it:  at  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  there 
were  at  least  twenty-six,  for  the  Abbot  S. 
Veremtmd  besides  'working  miracles,  so 
that  the  blind  could  see,  devils  were  ex¬ 
pelled,  and  the  like,  collected  monasteries, 
and  nine  more  were  added  in  the  remain¬ 
der  of  that  century  or  in  the  next.  The 
monks  early  accepted  the  Rule  of  Cluny 
but  never  the  authority,  nor,  indeed,  that' 
of  any  prelate  until  1522;  since  then,  until 
1833,  it  contained  a  university  that  ranked 
with  Salamanca,  Valladolid,  and  Alcala, 
and  the  studio  of  Sahagun  was  transferred 


S.  Vere¬ 
mund 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


360 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Yepes 

thither,  in  1560.  Yepes’s  chronicle  was 
commenced  here,  and  printed,  two  volumes 
of  it,  in  1609;  the  third,  dated  at  Valladolid, 
was,  the  author  says,s  printed  at  Irache, 
one  of  the  best  presses  in  Spain  being  seated 
in  that  university.  Today  a  poor  handful 
of  Seminarists  walk  in  the  fragrant  planta¬ 
tions  of  box  and  cypress  within  the  four 
cloisters,  drink  of  their  springing  fountains 
fed  from  mountain  brooks:  shrink  away  or 
clatter  down  the  glorious  cloister  where 
in  1547  a  Renaissance  builder  dreamed 
Gothic.  The  church,  which  Yepes  calls 
more  aged  and  strong  than  good-looking, 
strikes  the  traveller  as  a  strayed  sister  of 
Zamora,  Toro,  and  Salamanca,  and  as  a 
fine  instance  of  the  transitional  style: 
built  early  in  the  twelfth  century  at  the 
east  end,  and  continued,  a  little  later,  west¬ 
ward  of  the  crossing.  The  three  parallel 
apses  open  under  their  deep  semi-domes  by 
a  pointed  arch,  and  the  middle  one  inter¬ 
calates  a  bay  of  pointed  barrel-vault  and 
adds  a  double  arcade  around  the  interior. 
The  transepts  consist  of  one  bay  each  of 
quadripartite  vault,  and  the  nave  of  three 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

361 

more  bays  of  the  same.  The  dome  rests  on 
squinches  in  the  shape  of  shells;  there  is  a 
window  in  each  face  of  the  square  drum 
and  in  each  comer  a  shaft,  resting  on  a 
capital,  that  carries  the  figure  of  an 
Evangelist,  and  the  symbolic  beast  above. 

Lamperez 

Sr.  Lamperez,  who  has  studied  and  loves 
it  well,  and  has  published  drawings  of  the 
dome,  the  apse,  and  the  nave,  says  that 
the  curious  dome  (though  rebuilt  in  the 
uppef  part)  is  not  so  near  to  the  Salaman- 
tine  group  as  it  looks,  and  questions 
whether  it  may  be  owed  to  some  Syrian 

A 

architect — “come  like  so  many  others  by 

wandering 

the  cuenca  of  the  Ebro  to  seek  the  Camino 

Syrian 

frances.”  6 

In  the  second  bay  on  the  north  opens 
a  doorway  richly  moulded  on  the  outside, 
with  pointed  arch  and  the  chrism  in  the 
archivolt.  Two  coupled  shafts,  and  four 
plain,  in  each  jamb,  have,  nearly  all,  storied 
capitals,  some  from  the  life  of  S.  Martin; 
the  sharing  of  his  cloak  and  the  visit  of 
Christ  wearing  it  are  easy  to  recognize, 
but  opposite  a  knight  is  fighting  a  Sagittary 
and  one  savage  is  fighting  another,  two 

AND  M  (5  N  O  GRAPHS 

I 

362 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

S.  Martin 
of  Tours 

dragons,  men  with  swords  and  shields  (one 
round  and  one  triangular)  a  harpy  in  a 
hood  and  an  animal  in  such  another,  con¬ 
fuse  inferences.  These  last  two  belong 
to  the  fifteenth  century,  whether  at  SS. 
Creus  or  at  Pampeluna.  S.  Martin  of  Tours 
appears  frequently  in  Spain  and  all  along 
the  length  of  this  road;  the  original 
church  of  Iria  Flavia  was,  possibly,  dedi¬ 
cated  to  him7  before  the  invention  of  S. 
James’s  relics,  though  more  probably  the 
patron  intended  there  was  S.  Martin 
Dumiensis.  A  scrap  of  rich  arcading  was 
tried  outside  the  window  in  the  wall  above, 
but  proved,  I  suppose,  too  costly  in  time 
and  skilled  labour.  On  the  whole,  this 
door  should  be  contemporary  with  that  of 
Puente  la  Reyna. 

The  western  porch  is  later  and  rather 
odd:  five  little  graduated  round-headed 
windows  under  a  pointed  barrel-vault  oc¬ 
cupy  the  upper  part  of  the  face;  below,  a 
pointed  arch  of  five  orders,  strong  and 
square,  rests  on  the  four  shafts  in  either 
jamb  and  is  crowned  by  a  plainly  moulded 
dripstone.  In  front  of  this  the  deep 

i 

HISPANIC'  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

363 

• 

porch  is  sustained  by  three  transverse 
arches,  pointed,  resting  on  capitals,  and 
these  on  corbels  figuring  busts  or  heads  and 
arms : — a  bearded  man,  a  beautiful  woman 
in  a  coif,  a  negro,  another  woman,  etc.: 
outside,  the  trumpeters  of  the  Doom. 
The  door  itself  has  lovely  ironwork. 

The  rebuilding  of  the  dome  was  all  but 
finished  in  1597  when  it  fell,  the  builder 
being  saved  by  a  miracle  of  S.  Veremund: 
according  to  the  Bollandists,  he  was  about 
to  lay  the  last  stone  when  he  heard  a  voice 
that  said  the  abbot  summoned  him  and  was 
scarcely  in  safety  before  the  whole  fell  in. 
This  miracle  resembles  pleasantly  some 
which  will  be  met  later  on,  at  Castrojeriz. 
Yepes  testifies  that  the  tower  was  finished 
in  1609  and  the  rebuilding  done  within  the 
forty  years,  preceding,  dormitories,  stair¬ 
ways,  cloisters,  courts  and  fountains.  The 
effect  of  the  church,  however,  with  its 
strong  plain  arches  and  coupled  columns, 
its  austere  early  capitals  and  early  vaults, 
and  absence  of  triforium,  is  to  recall  the 
early  Cistercian  building,  strictly  contem¬ 
porary,  south  and  west  of  Rome.  The 

The 

Master 

Builder 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

364 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

Syrian 

dome 

Ancient 

usage 

• 

rich  Benedictines  here,  lying  close  to  the 
Way,  attracted  the  new  forms  in  archi¬ 
tecture  and  embodied  them  all,  from  the 
Syrian  dome  and  its  great  Evangelical 
sculptures,  down  to  the  lovely  curving 
star-patterns  of  the  cloister  vault.  When 
Alexander  II  was  engaged  in  trying  to 
wrest  their  own  ritual  from  the  Spanish 
church  and  substitute  the  Roman  use, 
this  abbey  sent  two  precious  MSS.  to 
Rome,  a  missal  and  a  sacramentary:  the 
latter  had  been  copied  at  the  monastery  of 
Albelda. 

The  monks  when,  as  I  said,  they  were 
reformed  in  1522  by  Fray  Diego  de  Saha- 
gun,  the  Abbot  of  S.  Benedict  of  Valladolid, 
still  kept  some  of  their  ancient  customs. 
For  instance,  when  a  monk  died  each  priest 
among  his  brethren  gave  him  seven  masses, 
and  those  not  in  orders  recited  ten  Psalters; 
on  the  day  of  his  death  they  fed  thirty 
poor  men,  and  for  thirty  days  of  mourn¬ 
ing  thereafter  they  entertained  a  poor  man 
in  his  place  in  the  refectory,  to  whom 
they  gave  the  dead  monk’s  portion.  In 
Yepes’s  day  the  ration  was  still  a  dole,  but 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

365 

the  poor  man  was  not  fetched  into  the 
refectory,  the  monks  finding  that  sort  of 
guest  embarrassing.  The  old  way  was 
very  striking,  in  its  transsubstantiation  of 
pagan  into  Christian  use,  its  consecration 
of  the  food  and  drink  once  offered  to 
speed  a  lingering  soul  on  its  latest  longest 
journey,  by  the  word  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
the  “done  unto  Me.” 

A  Chris¬ 
tian  trans¬ 
substanti¬ 
ation 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

366 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

VII 

THE  LOGRONO  ROAD 

S’en  istres  de  la  ville  sans  mile 
destourbance 

E  tant  esploiterent  on  la  Jesu 
sperance 

Qu'au  Groing  fnrent  venus. 

— La  Prise  de  Pampeluye. 

Leaving  Estella,  the  road  turns,  ever 
and  anon,  running  for  a  space  between 
high,  bare  hills,  crowned  by  ruins  of  hermit¬ 
age  or  castle,  all  one  now,  past  where 
Irache  suns  its  low  massy  dome  on  a  bland 
slope:  through  the  welcome  greenery  of 
woods,  in  the  scent  of  box  or  juniper;  past 
a  widening  golden  valley  where  brown 
towns  couch  like  hares  in  their  forms; 
smooth  and  swift  it  runs  to  the  pretty 
place,  with  its  water-side  church,  of  Los 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

367 

Arcos.  Hereabouts,  in  the  twelfth  cen¬ 
tury,  a  man  met  a  merchant,  barefoot, 
carrying  chains  to  Santiago,  and  heard  how 
he  had  been  sold  thirteen  times  into  slavery 
and  S.  James  had  delivered  him.  Indeed, 
the  Apostle  was  not  well  pleased  with 
the  contract,1  but  God  Almighty,  whose 
patience  is  eternity,  held  him  to  it.  Some¬ 
where  between  Estella  and  Logrono  the 
tale  as  it  was  told  shortened  a  dusty  mile 
or  twain. 

The  superb  cloister  of  Los  Arcos  imitates 
Pampeluna  and  anticipates  Najera;  the 
belfry,  of  openwork,  flamboyant,  is  more  de¬ 
serving  of  Charles  V’s  famous  mot  about 
the  coffer,  than  either  tower  to  which 
he  fitted  it,  that  of  Burgos  or  that  of 
Florence;  the  church  itself  is  a  luxurious 
piece  of  rococo  enamelling,  a  scented 
casket,  lined  all  with  what  looks  like 
Spanish  leather,  of  colour  laid  over  silver- 
leaf,  and  fitted  all  with  gilded  Churri- 
gueresque  altars,  exquisite  and  effeminate. 
It  is  possible  that  the  fifteenth  century 
church  still  exists  under  this  gilt  and 
jewellery,  fard  and  ceruse,  but  it  would  be  a 

A  Miracle 
of 

S.  James 
(No.  xxii) 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

1 

368 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Los  Arcos 

sad  pity  to  go  restoring,  for  Spain  has  a 
plenty  of  the  fifteenth  century  elsewhere, 
but  nothing  so  good  in  its  own  kind  as  this, 
like  a  portrait-study  by  Nattier. 

The  town  claims  to  have  been  known  of 
Ptolemy;2  it  was  favoured  in  the  second 
half  of  the  twelfth  century,  Sancho  the 
Wise  exempting  townsfolk  in  1175  from 
obligations  of  bakery  and  butchery  even 
to  the  king;3  but  what  it  holds  of  that  age, 
if  anything,  I  know  not;  from  the  fifteenth 
to  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  a  part 
of  Castile.  It  enjoys  a  feria  in  August: 
to  watch  families  reuniting  for  the  feast, 
Jehane  leaned  over,  from  the  motor-omni¬ 
bus,  one  day  as  we  passed  through,  just  in 
time  to  see  a  sleek  little  black  priest  with 
a  pink  nose,  called  Enrique,  seized  by  a 
bigger  girl  and  kissed  soundly  on  both 
cheeks. 

The  wind  blows  strong-scented  and 
earth-warmed.  The  way  runs  on  past 
sparse  grain  fields,  in  wide  turns  and  long 
descents,  past  Sansol  steep-scarped;  past 
Torres  climbing  a  river  bank  and  rearing 
above  tufted  trees  the  tower  and  cross  of 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

T  H  E  W  A  Y 

369 

the  Holy  Sepulchre;  past  Viana,  founded 
in  1219  and  cherishing  still  some  crumbling 
walls,  a  strong  church  tower,  and  the 
memory  ot  a  brief  and  tragic  principate. 4 
The  red  soil  of  the  Pyrenean  outliers 
below  Pampeluna,  tinged  as  though  with 
Christian  blood  undried,  has  yielded  to 
yellow  earth  and  yellow  rock,  and  the  very 
dust  is  impalpable  gold.  About  the  walls  of 
Viana  the  road  turns  once  more,  and  then 
lies  straight  as  a  stretched  string  across 
ten  miles,  from  that  last  hill-spur  to 
the  Ebro.  There  at  Logrono  S.  Juan  de 
Ortega  built  a  bridge,  or  perhaps  only 
rebuilt,  for  the  fuero  of  1095  makes  men¬ 
tion  of  one.  Thereon  stood  a  chapel  dedi¬ 
cate  to  S.  John,  but  in  the  flood  of  1775 
the  Ebro  took  it. 5 

Bridge  and 

Bridge- 

Warden 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

370 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Rioja 

The  Spires  of  Logrono. 

Abolladas  los  concavos  arneses 

Y  las  huecas  celadas  sin  resplandor. 
Sin  file  las  espadas. 

— Lope  de  Vega. 

At  Logrono  we  crossed  an  iron  track, 
saw  and  might  have  touched  railway  metal, 
but  we  never  travelled  by  rail  till  the  other 
side  of  Burgos.  Always  the  road  invited, 
and  the  motor  or  diligence  set  out  and 
arrived,  grey  with  dust,  crowded,  and 
from  the  broad  seat  on  the  top  we  felt  it 
licking  up  the  miles.  Considering  that  the 
railway  runs  there,  it  is  curious  how  few 
ecclesiologists  have  visited  the  town,  or 
even  know  its  whereabouts,  or  have  so 
much  as  heard  of  its  churches.  Not 
so  was  it  once.  Today  the  city  is  in¬ 
deed  commercial,  but  still  historical.  The 
heart  of  the  Rioja,  all  the  red  wine 
flows  through.  Situate  at  the  crossing  of 
a  great  river,  Logrono  was  always  self- 
important :  the  earliest  knights  knew  it,  and 
John  of  Navarre  and  Walter  of  Aragon, 
and  poets  of  Padua  and  Verona;  the  pil¬ 
grims  made  havoc  of  the  name  but  relished 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

37i 

the  hospitality;  even  Purchas’s'  rhymester 
remembered,  out  of  the  confusion, — “Then 
to  the  Gruon  in  Spayne.”  Jacob  Sobieski, 
who  went  on  the  pilgrimage  in  the  spring  of 

1611,  describes  the  city2  “on  the  abundant 
river  Ebro,  built  after  the  Spanish  fashion, 
for  in  Spain  there  are  no  such  notable 
buildings  always  as  in  other  places,  and 
above  all  they  want  height.  ’  ’  This  means 
probably  that  the  northern  eye  missed  the 
steep  roofs,  but  it  is  oddly  charged  against 
this  of  all  places,  for  the  steeples  of  Logrono 
were  right  famous :  Enrique  Cock 3  counts  la 
Redonda,  el  Palacio,  S.  Pedro,  S.  Bias  and 
S.  Bartolome,  “that  all  have  lofty  belfries 
that  make  a  fair  view  from  afar”;  and 
Lope  de  Vega  wrote,  in  much-admired 
lines,  of 

Steeples 

Esa  ciudad  que  superior  preside 
a  estas  amenidades, 
y  con  sus  torres  las  estrellas  mide, 

gloria  de  Espaha,  honor  de  las 

ciudades. 

“  They  use  linen  windows  instead  of 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

372 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

La  diana 

glass,”  the  noble  Pole  goes  on,  “for  cool 
and  for  shade,  which  does  not  contribute 
so  much  to  the  gayety  of  a  place  as  glass 
in  the  windows.” 

The  town  lies  fragrant  in  memory  with 
the  scent  of  ripe  grapes  and  sprinkled 
pavements,  cooled  with  little  runnels  that 
crept  into  a  pool  by  every  tree  in  the 
Plaza  full  of  the  sound  of  soldiers’  move¬ 
ments,  from  the  bugle’s  reveille  that  they 
call  in  Spanish  la  diana,  to  the  band- 
concert  that  went  on  in  the  square  past 
midnight.  All  day  the  blue  uniforms 
hung  in  view  like  dragon-flies  under  a 
bridge,  and  the  shuffle  and  purr  of  marching 
squads  held  the  ear,  or  the  quick  rattle  of 
a  cavalry  trot.  Those  were  perilous  times 
in  Spain,  of  which  the  writer  may  not 
speak,  no  more  than  one  visiting  in  a 
house  when  trouble  befalls.  We  dropped 
eyelids,  stopped  ears,  and  triple-sealed  the 
doors  of  speech. 

To  be  called  later  “ciudad  muy  noble  y 
muy  leal,  ”  as  early  as  926  the  name  appears 
in  documents:  the  men  are  called,  in  1076, 
“gente  dura  y  terrible.”  At  two  great 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


373 


moments,  well  remembered,  was  their 
temper  approved.  In  1336,  the  Castilian 
army,  routed,  fell  back  upon  the  town,  hard 
pressed  by  the  Navarrese  under  Gaston 
de  Foix  himself,  hot-foot  and  drunk  with 
victory.  Then  Ruy  Diaz  Gaona  held  the 
bridge  against  them  all.  Captain  and 
citizen  of  Logrono,  with  but  three  soldiers 
he  saved  the  city.  He  died,  but  not  too 
soon,  and  Ebro  took  his  body,  and  washed 
it  down  to  the  deep  eddy  that  yet  keeps, 
secure,  his  bones,  his  memory,  and  his 
name.4 

In  the  sixteenth  century  they  stood  a 
siege,  with  artillery,  from  May  25  to  the 
Feast  of  S.  Barnabas,  and  the  little  garrison 
beat  off  the  French  who  had  conquered 
Pampeluna  and  overrun  Navarre  in  that 
year  of  1521,  and  still  they  celebrate  the 
feat  on  Barnaby  Bright. 

The  fifteenth  century  rebuilt  Santiago 
and  the  two  S.  Maries:  that  called  la  Re- 
donda  and  that  called  del  Palacio.  The 
latter  carries,  plump  in  the  middle  of 
everything,  a  most  lovely  spire,  smooth¬ 
sided,  crocketed  and  stone-cased,  the  price 


“  gente 
dura  y 
terrible  ” 


Ruy  Diaz 
Gaona 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


374 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

S.  M.  del 
Palacio 

of  which  was  that  the  central  piers  ot  the 
church  had  all  to  be  monstrously  built  up 
and  the  interior  spoiled.  “Do  you  sup¬ 
pose,  ”  said  an  acolyte,  spotted  with  candle- 
grease,  shaking  his  bunch  of  keys,  “that 
they  would  have  spoiled  the  vista  for 
anything  less?  ” 

Certes,  this  is  the  fairest  spire  in  all 
Spain.  Madrazo 5  compares  it  with  that  of 

Salisbury 

Sanguesa  which  it  surpasses  in  size,  and 
that  of  Olite  which  it  resembles  in  the 

Senlis 

perceptible  entasis  of  its  ribs;  but  the  only 
just  comparison  is  either  with  Litchfield  and 
Salisbury,  or,  better  yet,  with  Chartres 
and  Senlis,  set  as  it  is  with  gables  all 
around,  like  that  lone  lost  spire  of  the 
sleepy  city  in  the  sweetest  of  the  Isle  of 
France. 

No  Spaniard  drew  the  plans  for  it. 
Sancho  the  Wise  and  Sancho  the  Strong 
commissioned  the  church;  Alfonso  VII 
made  it  over  to  the  Order  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  and  it  became  the  seat  of  a 
Provincial  Chapter. 6  Though  in  the  four¬ 
teenth  and  fifteenth  century  the  church 
was  rebuilt,  the  strong  transitional  style 

I 

HI  S’ PANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


375 


of  the  late  twelfth  century  still  appears  in 
the  trascoro  and  flanking  aisles;  a  single 
western  bay  in  each.  Eastward  of  the 
Renaissance  rebuilding,  a  vast  Gothic 
transept  rears  three  bays  of  star- vaulting; 
then  the  apse  appears  sixteenth-century 
again;  the  retable  is  dated  1581.  Shallow 
side-chapels  cling  under  the  walls  of  the 
transept;  and  the  cloister,  star-vaulted,  is 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 

In  1435  by  a  bull  of  Eugenius  IV,  the 
Coile giata  of  Albelda  was  transferred  to 
S.  Maria  la  Redonda.  The  church,  in 
spite  of  accretions— -a  domed  and  painted 
oval  salon  at  the  west,  a  bleak  eastern 
transept  like  the  hall  of  a  ducal  house, 
with  three  domes  and  an  eastern  doorway, 
the  aisle-apses  being  pierced  to  admit  to 
this— does  show,  in  the  part  intermediate, 
the  late  fifteenth-century  Gothic  of  all 
this  region  at  its  richest,  loftiest,  and  most 
splendid.  Without  proper  transepts,  it 
consists  of  four  bays,  aisles,  and  nave, 
four  shallow  chapels  opening  along  the 
south  aisle.  Great  piers  carry  a  few 
thin  shafts.  The  vaulting  is  very  high 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


La  Redonda 


376 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Alivio  de 
caminantes 

and  very  fantastical;  the  rejas,  retables, 
and  tombs  are  abundant  and  good,  and 
vastly  enrich  the  interior,  which  is,  fur¬ 
thermore,  entirely  painted,  vault  and 
aisles,  with  dim  greens  and  blues,  dull  and 
tawny  golds. 

S.  Bartolome,  however  is  of  another  sort, 
dedicate  to  the  Far-traveller  whose  legend 
is  so  enviable  to  travellers.  “Little,  but 
good,”  says  Sr.  Lamperez. 7  Built  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  rebuilt  in  the  four¬ 
teenth  and  fifteenth,  it  has  three  apses  ot 
pointed  barrel-vault,  transepts  and  crossing 
raised  with  a  star-vault,  one  bay  of  nave 
and  aisles  and  a  western  transept  lifted 
high  on  the  south  side  into  the  tower,  and 
filled  elsewhere  by  a  low  gallery  enriched 
upon  the  bosses  with  rather  good  Renais¬ 
sance  heads.  The  only  original  capitals 
are  those  of  the  piers  to  the  main  apse, 
which  has  abacus  and  string-course  of 
billet  moulding.  On  the  south  side  little 
round-headed  windows  are  set  in  the  clere¬ 
story  place. 

The  whole  is  of  a  noble  stone,  grey 
within,  biown  where  weathered.  The 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

377 

fagade,  built  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
combined  the  two  chief  ornaments  of 
Estella:  the  crowded  tympanum,  multiplied 
mouldings,  and  reedy  shafts  of  the  door 
proper,  with  a  wide  band  of  sculpture 
stretching  back  from  the  jambs  across  the 
entire  front,  carved  with  the  history  of 
S.  Bartholomew.  But  under  this  runs  a 
blind  arcade,  diapered,  in  the  French  fash¬ 
ion,  recalling,  a  little,  Bourges,  and,  a  little, 
Noyon,  and,  in  a  way  most  of  all,  the  pure 
and  early  Gothic  porch  near  Saumur,  on  the 
pilgrim’s  road.  The  tympanum  and  lintel, 
the  former  still  showing  its  original  arch 
under  the  later  debased  curve,  have  been 
lowered  from  their  proper  place,  probably 
when  the  gallery  was  built  inside,  and 
leave  room  for  a  triangular  window.  If 
this  portal  belongs  with  those  of  Estella 
and  Pampeluna,  Ujue  and  Artajona,  it  is 
the  latest  and  the  coarsest  in  workmanship. 
The  capitals  of  the  lower  arcade  are  in 
the  same  style  as  those  of  SS.  Creus;  the 
spandrels  above  them  are  crowded  with 
little  figures  rather  more  delicate:  above 
the  canopies  of  the  statues  swarm  other 

at  Candes 

The  Five 
Portals  of 
Navarre 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

378 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The 

Golden 

Legend 

personages,  like  Zaccheus  and  his  friends 
in  the  palm  tree.  The  large  reliefs  begin 
their  story  at  the  right-hand  door-jamb, 
and  continue  around  the  south  comer, 
then  recommence  in  the  corresponding 
comer  on  the  north,  and  end  again  at  the 
jamb  of  the  portal.  The  work  is  coarse 
and  racy ;  a  flaying  of  the  titular  saint  out¬ 
rivals  Spagnoletto’s;  the  Apostle,  flayed,  is 
too  like  that  too-famous  image  in  Milan. 
On  the  south  side  the  scenes  are  quieter 
in  conception  and  a  trifle  earlier  and  graver 
in  work.  In  the  tympanum,  the  Saviour, 
erect,  holds  up  His  wounded  hands,  S. 
Mary  and  S.  John  kneeling  in  desperate 
intercession;  below,  the  twelve  apostles 
stand  free,  under  rudimentary  canopies. 
The  story  condensed  is  this: — 

S.  Bartholomew  the  apostle  went  into 
India,  which  is  in  the  end  of  the  world. 
And  therein  he  entered  into  a  temple 
where  an  idol  was  and  he  as  a  Pilgrim 
abode  therein.  And  the  temple  was 
full  of  sick  people,  and  could  have 
no  answer  of  that  idol,  therefore  they 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

379 

went  into  another  city  whereas  another 
idol  was  worshipped  named  Berith,  and 
Berith  said:  Your  god  is  bound  with 
chains  of  fire  that  he  neither  dare  draw 

breath  ne  speak  after  that  Bartholomew 
entered  into  the  temple.  He  hath  his 
hairs  black  and  crisp,  his  skin  white,  eyes 
great,  his  nostrils  even  and  straight,  his 
beard  long  and  hoar  a  little,  and  of  a 
straight  and  seemly  stature,  and  it  is 

Nor  moth 

twenty-six  years  that  his  clothes  never 
waxed  old  ne  foul.  The  angels  go  with 
him  which  never  suffer  him  to  be  weary 
ne  to  be  an  hungered,  he  is  always  of  like 

nor  rust 

semblant,  glad  and  joyous.  He  seeth  all 
things  tofore,  he  knoweth  all  things,  he 
speaketh  all  manner  languages  and 
understandeth  them,  and  he  knoweth 
well  what  I  say  to  you.  And  when 
Polemius  king  of  that  region  heard  of 
this  thing,  which  had  a  daughter  lunatic, 
he  sent  to  the  apostle  praying  that  he 
would  come  to  him  and  heal  his  daughter. 
And  when  the  apostle  was  come  to  him 
and  saw  that  she  was  bound  with  chains 
and  bit  all  them  that  went  to  her,  he 
commanded  to  unbind  her  and  then  anon 
she  was  unbound  and  delivered.  And 

nor  hunger 
nor  thirst 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

380 

WAY  OF  S .  J  A  M  E  S 

So  Greco 
painted 

anon  then  they  set  cords  on  the  image 
for  to  pull  down  and  overthrow  the  idol 
but  they  might  not.  The  apostle  then 
commanded  the  devil  that  he  should 
issue  and  go  out,  and  he  brake  the  idol 
all  to  pieces.  And  forthwith  all  the  sick 
people  were  cured  and  healed.  And  it 
was  told  the  king  Astrage  his  God  Bal- 
daeh  was  overthrown  and  all  to-broken, 
and  when  the  king  heard  that  he  brake 
and  all  to-rent  his  purple  in  which  he  was 
clad,  and  commanded  that  the  apostle 
should  be  beaten  with  staves,  and  that  he 
should  be  flayed  quick  and  so  it  was 
done.  Then  the  Christians  took  away 
the  body  and  buried  it  honourably.  8 

Logroho,  practical,  seated  at  a  centre  of 
traffic  and  exposed  to  all  passing  armies, 
all  chances  of  victory  and  defeat,  was 
content  to  adopt  and  adapt  motives  en¬ 
countered  close  at  hand.  At  Estellayou 
feel  how  the  townsfolk  took  what  they 
could  get  of  money  and  privilege,  and  built 
after  their  own  fashion,  hiring  their  own 
workmen.  The  king  might  fetch,  for 
Pampeluna,  an  architect  from  Paris,  the 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

381 

abbot  might  fetch  a  builder  from  Gascony, 
as  for  Iranzu  in  1776  did.  Abbot  Nicholas 
the  brother  of  Bishop  Peter  'of  Paris,9  but 
in  Estella  and  Logrono  the  Spanish  style 
appears  alive  and  growing,  taking  what 
it  can,  where  it  can. 

Cathedral 

and 

convent  i 

builders 

Along  the  Battlefield. 

The,  breath  of  dew  and 
twilight's  grace 

Be  on  the  lonely  battle- 
place. 

Across  the  wide  plain  between  Logrono 
and  Najera,  where  the  Black  Prince’s 
army  moved  softly  in  the  grey  dawn,  even 
to  the  bridge  where  Roland  fought  for 
three  days  with  Ferragus,  the  track  runs 
as  on  a  bowling  green,  and  Logrono  in  the 
morning  sun  lies  comfortable,  purchasable, 
and  Najera  in  the  dusty  noon,  filthy  and 
fly-specked,  crumbles  red  into  the  arid 
river-bed.  But  if  you  had  turned  long 
since  your  dusty  feet  toward  home,  and 
at  the  day’s  end  were  moving  back  from 
the  west  just  beginning  to  burn  stilly  about 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

382 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

As  one  that 
travels 

the  huge  sun’s  pyre,  then  you  should  see 
with  the  counted  miles  blue  hills  arising 
fold  on  fold,  enchanted  in  their  quietude, 
magical  in  their  vaporous  amethyst.  The 
dusty  chicory  burns  whitely  in  little 
patches ;  the  wind  is  warm  with  the  memory 
of  the  day  and  Iresh  with  the  hope  of  the 
dark.  You  do  not  see  Logrono  in  such 
approach,  for  it  lies  low  upon  the  river: 
you  see  but  mountains  softly  folded,  wide- 
encircling,  far  as  the  eye  can  trace  them 
or  the  memory  tell,  enclosing  and  allur¬ 
ing  the  Road  back  into  the  misty  Pass 
where  dripping  hemlocks  and  streaming 
crags  still  echo  the  olijaunt.  Southward, 
among  sharper  peaks,  lies  the  abbey  of 

toward  the 

darkening 

east 

S.  Millan,  and  that  of  Albelda  cavern- 
hewn;  northward  the  twilight  swallows  up 
the  ranges. 

Hereabouts  was  the  battle:  and  0,  how 
green  the  corn ! 

Here  the  most  strange  and  splendid  figures 
of  that  gorgeous,  lusty,  heady  fourteenth 
century  of  Froissart’s  are  brought  together 
as  in  a  chanson  dc  gcslc:  Edward  the  Black 
Prince,  Bertrand  du  Guesclin;  the  tragic 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTEvS 

THE  WAY 

383 

and  bitter  Peter,  the  subtle  and  deadly 
Bastard;  the  Captal  de  Buch,  Olivier 
Clisson.  They  had  the  most  outlandish 
and  romantic  titles :  the  B&gue  of  Villiers, 
l’Allemant  de  S.  Venant,  the  Souldich 
de  1’Estrade. 

- 

“Then  they  dislodged  and  took  the 

Great- 

way  to  Navaret,  and  passed  through  a 

hearted 

country  called  the  country  of  the  Gard, 
and  when  they  were  passed  then  they 
came  to  a  towne  called  Vianne.  There 

men  .  .  . 

the  Prince  and  the  duke  of  Lancastre 

refresshed  them,  and  the  erle  of  Army- 
nacke,  and  the  other  lordes,  a  two  days. 
Then  they  went  and  passed  the  river 
that  departeth  Castell  and  Navar  at  the 
bridge  of  Groygne  among  the  gardeyns 
under  the  olives,  and  there  they  founde  a 
better  country  than  they  were  in  before; 
howbeit  they  had  great  defaute  of  vitayle. 
And  when  that  king  Henry  knew  that 
the  Prince  and  his  people  were  passed  the 
rjver  at  Groygne,  then  he  depaited  fro 
saynt  Mychaulte  where  he  had  long 
lain,  and  went  and  lodged  before  Navar¬ 
ette  on  the  same  river.  When  the  Prince 

Bridge 
of  Logrofio 

heard  that  king  Henry  was  approched, 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

384 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

.  .  .  mas  no 

olvides  que 
el  vivir 

he  was  right  joyous,  and  sayd  openly: 
By  saynt  George  this  bastarde  semeth 
to  be  a  valyaunt  knight,  sythehe  desireth 
so  sore  to  find  11s;  I  trust  we  shall  fynde 
eche  other  shortely.” 

The  Spaniards  characteristically  never 
went  to  bed  at  all:  they  supped  well,  and 
talked  awhile,  and  at  midnight  were  ready 
lor  business: 

The  Prince  and  his  company  went 
over  a  lytell  hyll,  and  in  the  descendyng 
therof  they  parceyved  clerely  their 
enemyes  comyng  towarde  them;  and 
whan  they  were  all  discended  down  this 
mountaine,  than  every  man  drue  to  their 
batayls  and  kept  them  styll,  and  so 
rested  them,  and  every  man  dressed 
and  aparelled  hymselfe  redy  to  fight. 

There  in  the  April  weather,  in  the  early 
light  Sir  John  Chandos  came  up.  He 
brought  his  banner  rolled  up  together  to 
the  Prince,  and  said: 

Sir,  behold  here  is  my  banner;  I  re¬ 
quire  you  display  it  abroad  and  give 
me  leave  this  day  to  raise  it;  for  sir,  I 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

385 

thank  God  and  you,  I  have  land  and 
heritage  sufficient  to  maintain  it  withall. 
Than  the  Prince  and  king  Dampeter 
took  the  banner  between  their  hands  and 
spread  it  abroad,  the  which  was  of 
silver  a  sharp  pyle  gules,  and  delivered 
it  to  him  and  sayd,  Sir  Johan,  be- 
holde  here  your  banner:  God  sende  you 
joye  and  honoure  thereof.  Then  sir 
Johan  Chandos  bare  his  banner  to  his 
own  company,  and  said,  Sirs,  behold 
here  my  banner  and  yours,  keep  it  as 
your  own;  and  they  took  it  and  were 
right  joyfull  thereof,  and  said,  that  by 
the  pleasure  of  God  and  saynt  George, 
they  wolde  keep  and  defend  it  to  the  best 
of  their  powers.  And  so  the  banner 
abode  in  the  hands  of  a  good  Englysshe 
squyer,  called  Wylliam  Alery,  who  bare 
it  that  day,  and  a  quitted  himself  right 
nobly.  Than  anon  after  thengylsshmen 
and  Gascoins  alighted  of  their  horses, 
and  every  man  drew  under  their  own 
banner  and  standerd,  in  array  of  ba- 
tayle  redy  to  fight:  it  was  great  joye 
to  see  and  consider  the  banners  and 
pennons  and  the  noble  armery  that  was 
ther. 

es  una 

escuela  de 
honor  .  .  . 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

386 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

In  the  wind  that  runs  before  the  sun,  the 
pennons  shivered :  the  white  flag  of  S.  George 
shook  out  its  red  cross  above  twelve  hundred 
flickering  pcnscls  ot  the  free  companies. 
They  were  bad  men,  no  doubt,  but  they 
were  good  soldiers,  seasoned.  In  the  pale 
level  sunrays  lance-heads  twinkled,  steel 
caps  glittered :  the  bugles  that  had  cried  in 

Spanish 

the  night,  sang  now  for  the  fight.  The 

slingers 

English  bowmen  were  well  matched  with 
Spanish  slingers,  whom  they  liked  no 
better  than  had  the  Romans  before  then. 

Sir  John 

“That  day  sir  Johan  Chandos  was  a 

Chandos 

good  knight,  and  did  under  his  banner 
many  a  noble  feat  of  armes;  he  adven¬ 
tured  himself  so  farre  that  he  was  closed 
in  amonge  his  enemyes,  and  so  sore  over¬ 
pressed  that  he  was  felled  downe  to  the 
erthe;  and  on  him  there  fell  a  great  and 
a  bygge  man  of  Castell,  called  Martyne 
Ferrant,  who  was  greatly  renomed  of 
hardynesse  among  the  Spaniards,  and  he 
did  his  entent  to  have  slayne  sir  Johan 
Chandos,  who  lay  under  hym  in  great 
danger.  Then  sir  Johan  Chandos  re- 
membred  of  a  knyfe  that  he  had  in  his 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

387 

bosom,  and  drew  it  out,  and  strake  this 
Martyne  so  in  the  back  and  in  the  sydes, 
that  he  wounded  him  to  dethe  as  he 

lay  on  him.  Than  sir  Johan  Chandos 
toumed  hym  over,  and  rose  quickely  on 
his  feet,  and  his  men  were  there  about 
him,  who  had  with  moche  payne  broken 
the  prease,  to  come  to  him  whereas  they 
saw  him  felled.” 

In  this  battle  the  Chancellor  Ayala,  the 
historian  and  poet,  was  taken  prisoner,  as 
he  relates  himself.  He  barely  mentions 

his  own  in  a  long  list  of  names, 1  for  he  is 
more  preoccupied  with  Mossen  Beltran  de 
Claquin,  and  el  Vesque  de  Villaines,  and 
D.  Garci  Alvarez  de  Toledo  Maestre  que 
fuera  de  Santiago ,  and  el  Clavero  de  Al¬ 
cantara,  who  was  called  Melen  Suarez, 
and  other  good  knights  who  were  taken, 
too,  by  those  in  white  surcoats  with  scarlet 
crosses,  whose  cry  was  Guiana,  Sant  Jorge  l 

being 
indeed  in 
rebellion 

Du 

Guesclin 

“There  were  of  Spaniards  and  of 
Castyle,  mo  than  a  hundred  thousand 
men  in  hamesse,  so  that  by  reson  of 
their  great  number,  it  was  long  or  they 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

388 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The 

Bastard’s 

escape 

could  be  overcome.  King  Dampeter  was 
greatly  chafed,  and  moche  desired  to 
meet  with  the  bastard  his  brother,  and 
said,  Where  is  that  whoreson,  that 
calleth  himselfe  king  of  Castella.  And 
the  same  king  Henry  fought  right 
valiantly  where  as  he  was,  and  held 
his  people  togyder  right  marvellously, 
and  said:  Aye  good  people,  ye  have 
crowned  me  king,  therfore  help  and 
aide  me,  to  keep  the  heritage  that  you 
have  give  me;  so  that  by  these  words, 
and  such  other  as  he  spake  that  day,  he 
caused  many  to  be  right  hardy  and  val- 
yaunt,  whereby  they  abode  on  the  felde, 
so  that  because  of  their  honor  they 
wolde  nat  flye  fro  the  place.” 

His  cry  that  day,  says  Pere  Lopez  de 
Ayala,  was  Castile  !  Santiago!  and  he  rode 
a  great  grey  Castilian  horse,  in  a  shirt  of 
mail,  until,  when  the  day  was  lost  and  the 
horse  was  spent,  a  squire  of  his,  Ruy 
Fernandez  de  Gaona,  came  up  on  a  little 
jennet  and  exchanged,  saying:  “Lord, 
take  this  horse,  for  yours  can’t  move.” 
The  king  took  it  and  got  away  from  Najera, 
taking  the  Soria  road  for  Aragon. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

389 

‘  ‘  The  batayle  that  was  best  fought  and 
lengest  held  togyder,  was  the  company  of 
sir  Bertram  of  Clesquy,  for  there  were 
many  noble  men  of  arms  who  fought 
and  held  toguyder  to  their  powers,  and 
ther  was  done  many  a  noble  feat  of 
arms.  And  on  the  Englysshe  parte, 
specially  there  was  sir  Johan  Chandos, 
who  that  day  did  like  a  noble  knight, 
and  governed  and  counsayled  that  day 
the  duke  of  Lancastre,  in  like  manner  as 
he  did  before  the  Prince,  at  the  batell 
of  Poycters,  wherein  he  was  greatly  re- 
nomed  and  praised,  the  which  was  good 
reason;  for  a  valyant  man,  and  a  good 
knyght,  acquitynge  hymselfe  nobly 
among  lords  and  princes,  ought  greatly 
to  be  recommended.” 

Mozos 
codiciosos 
de  honra.  .  . 

If  the  ordeal  of  battle  means  anything, 
this  day  the  issue  declared  for  that  Don 
Peter,  who  wanted  to  be  called  the  Just. 
“The  Prince  [EdwardJ  had  indeed  with 
him  the  flower  of  chivalry,  and  there  were 
under  him  the  most  renowned  combatants 
in  the  whole  world.”  What  sumptuous 
phrases  they  had,  these  men  that  made 

King 

Darapeter 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

390 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

White 

Horsemen 

history  as  they  wrote  it,  and  what  magni¬ 
ficent  certitudes!  Here  with  these  words, 
unlike  enough  to  the  actuality  of  the 
sullen  and  ferocious  Englishman  named 
less  from  his  black  armour  than  his  black 
heart,  and  of  his  host  of  alien  and  mercen¬ 
ary  invaders,  our  good  knight  and  loyal 
servitor  evokes  the  very  figures  of  the 
great-souled,  the  Happy  Warriors,  the — 

“White  Horsemen  who  ride  on  white 
horses,  the  Knights  of  God, 

Forever,  with  Christ  their  Captain, 
forever  He!” 

“Than  the  Englysshmen  and  Gascons 
lept  a  horsebake,  and  began  to  chase 
the  Spanyardes,  who  fledde  away  sore 
disconfyted  to  the  great  ryver:  and  at 
the  entry  of  the  bridge  of  Navaret,  there 
was  a  hideous  sheddinge  of  blood,  and 
many  a  man  slain  and  drowned,  for 
divers  lept  into  the  water,  the  which  was 
deep  and  hideous,  they  thought  they  had 
as  lieve  to  be  drowned  as  slain.  And  in 
this  chase  among  other,  ther  were  two 
valiant  knights  of  Spayne,  bearing  on 
them  the  abyte  [habit]  of  religion:  the 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

39i 

one  called  the  great  priour  of  saynt 
James,  and  the  other  the  great  maister 
of  Calatrave.  They  and  their  company, 
to  save  themselfe,  entred  into  Navaret, 
and  they  were  so  nere  chased  at  their 
back,  by  Englysshmen  and  Gascoyns, 
that  they  wan  the  bridge,  so  that 
there  was  a  great  slaughter.  And  then 
englysshmen  entred  into  the  city  after 
their  enemies,  who  were  entred  into  a 
strong  house  of  stone;  howbeit,  inconti¬ 
nent  it  was  won  by  force,  and  the  knights 
taken,  and  many  of  their  men  slayn, 
and  all  the  city  overron  and  pylled,  the 
whiche  was  greatly  to  the  Englysshmen’s 
profit.  Also  they  wanne  king  Henries 
lodgynge,  wherein  they  found  gret 
richesse  of  vessell,  and  jowelles  of  golde 
and  sylver,  for  the  king  was  come  thyder 
with  great  noblenesse,  so  that  when  they 
were  disconfyted,  they  had  no  leisure 
for  to  return  thyder  again,  to  save  that 
they  had  left  there.  So  this  was  a  hide¬ 
ous  and  a  terrible  disconfyture,  and  speci¬ 
ally  on  the  river  side,  there  was  many  a 
man  slain;  and  it  was  said,  as  I  heard 
after  reported  of  some  of  them  that  were 
there  present,  that  one  might  have  seen 

/  Ay,  que 
buen 

Caballero! 

s 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

392 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  most 
renowned 

the  water  that  ran  by  Navaret  to  be  of 
the  colour  of  red,  with  the  blood  of  men 
and  horse  that  were  there  slayn.  This  ba- 
tayle  was  bytwene  Naver,  and  Naveret, 
in  Spayne,  the  yere  of  the  incarnacyon 
of  our  Lorde  Jesu  Christ,  a  thousande 
thre  hundred  threscore  and  sixe,  the 
thirde  day  of  Aprill,  the  whiche  was  on 
a  Saturday.”  2 

As  at  Cologne  upon  the  winding  Rhine, 
and  among  the  stony  deserts  of  the  Bouches 
du  Rhone ,  as  on  the  sacred  plains  of  Chalons 
and  of  Poitiers,  so  here  the  quiet  air  is 
swept  with  confused  alarms  of  struggle 
and  flight,  is  thickened  and  cloudy  with 
the  figures  of  clashing  armies  that  like  the 
tides  withdraw  and  return  again.  Half  a 
millennium  before  Henry  of  Trastamare, 
Charles  the  Emperor  had  gathered  the 
most  renowned  combatants  in  the  whole 
world,  and  camped  in  sight  of  Najera, 
whence  the  hosts  of  Spain  and  Aragon  came 
prepared  and  glad.  “Moult  fu  beaus 
Feragus”:  the  time  was  early  summer,  the 
time  of  birds’  singing,  the  time  of  love- 
making, — 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE 


W  A  Y 


393 


This  geant  issued  out  of  the  town  and 
demanded  [combat]  singular,  person 
against  a  person.  Charles,  which  never 
had  refused  that  to  person,  sent  to 
him  Ogyer  the  Danoys.  But  when  the 
geant  saw  him  alone  on  the  field,  without 
making  of  any  semblant  of  war  he  came 
alone  to  him  and  took  him  with  one  hand 
and  put  him  Tinder  his  arm,  without 
doing  him  any  harm,  and  bare  him 
unto  his  lodgings  and  did  do  put  him  in 
prison,  and  made  no  more  ado  to  bear  him 
than  doth  a  wolf  to  bear  a  little  lamb. 
.  .  .  After  that  Ogyer  was  borne  thus 
away,  Charles  sent  Raymond  d’Aube- 
pyne.  When  Feragus  saw  him  he  bare 
him  away  as  lightly  as  the  other. 3 


Last  came  Roland.  Roland  went  to 
pray  in  the  dawn,  S.  James  and  S.  Michael  ss-  lames 
came  always  when  he  called  them,  he  Michael 
talked  theology  to  Feragus  in  the  pauses 
between  thrust  and  parry,  and  found 
him  a  stone  for  his  head  when  he 
slept  exhausted,  and  in  the  end  pricked 
the  poor  gentle  giant  in  the  one  spot  vul¬ 
nerable,  and  so  the  Bridge  of  Najera  was 


AND  MONOGRAPH  S' 


I 


394 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Kindness 

won,  and  the  city  baptized. 4  The  battle 
occupies  three  days  and  three  thousand  lines 
and  more.  There  is  not  a  word  of  history 
in  the  whole,  yet  it  was  by  some  other 
virtue  than  the  author’s  vain  imagination 
that  precisely  there,  where  he  had  never 
been,  these  figures  of  ancient  song,  muy 
noble  y  muy  leal,  “peopled  the  hollow  dark 
like  burning  stars.” 

S.  Mary  the  Royal. 

Mother  of  misericord, 

For  thy  dead  is  grief  in  thee? 
Can  it  be,  thou  dost  repent, 
That  they  went,  thy  chivalry, 
Those  sad  ways  magnifi¬ 
cent? — Lionel  Johnson. 

Najera  in  the  Sunday  noon  consisted  of  a 
rotting  cliff  and  a  bone-dry  bed  of  stones; 
between  them,  dirt  and  flies  and  good 
Christians.  Bells  tinkled  for  the  last 
Mass,  dogs  quarrelled,  children  cried  out; 
the  arid  heat  droned  and  hummed.  While 
the  narrator  went  to  look  for  S.  Mary 
the  Royal,  Jehane  was  welcomed  with 
a  shaded  room,  cool  water,  and  hospitality 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


395 


without  grudging  from  a  little  tavern 
keeper.  His  reward  came  immediately 
and  thirty-fold,  in  the  drinks  he  sold  to 
those  who  drifted  in  to  stare.  Meanwhile  a  aP°stollcal 
small  boy,  and  a  smaller  Cura,  were  giving 
to  the  narrator  more  counsel  than  comfort: 
the  church,  it  appeared,  belonged  to  a 
convent  of  frailes,  who  through  the  noon 
hours  were  bound  to  dine  and  sleep,  and 
for  neither  knocking  nor  ringing,  for  neither 
the  Pope  nor  the  King,  would  they  open  the 
door  before  mid-afternoon.  Just  the  glim¬ 
mer  of*  a  chance,  however,  searching  and 
bitter  inquiry  brought  out  that  a  certain 
ecclesiastical  dignitary  of  the  town  might 
stir  them  up.  Anyway,  we  went  about  to 
see :  and  at  a  comer  the  good  lad  raised  a 
cry  and  set  off  running:  the  convent  door 
it  seemed,  was  not  yet  closed,  a  beggar 
woman  who  waited  along  with  me  was 
confident  it  would  not  close  until  she  had 
her  daily  mess.  We  knocked  and  rang  at  andecciesi- 
intervals,  she  and  I  and  a  few  loungers, 
and  when  at  last  the  brass  wheel  spun  in 
the  door  I  could  see  at  a  glance  the  green 
of  cloister-garth  as  background  to  the 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


396 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Italian 

breeding 

Kings  of 
N&jera 

brown  of  frieze  cassock.  At  the  crack 

I  made  my  plea,  of  a  long  day’s  journey 
only  half  measured  yet,  of  recommenda¬ 
tions  from  the  Apostolic  Nuncio,  of  a  book 
in  course  of  writing;  and  anon  two  tall 
Franciscans,  incredibly  clean  and  kind, 
were  talking  with  me  in  the  cloister  and 
unlocking  for  me  the  church.  It  was  not 
just  for  pride  in  their  church  that  they  fore¬ 
went  the  meal  and  the  Recreation  that 
echoed  in  discussion  and  laughter  from 
the  upper  galleries  of  the  princely  cloister : 
it  was  that  they  did,  as  a  matter  of  daily 
practice,  take  the  stranger  in.  Though 
the  need,  in  this  case,  was  not  for  soup 
but  for  photographs,  not  to  feed  but  to 
see,  it  mattered  no  whit,  and  that  they 
wonderfully  discerned. 

The  city  of  Najera  was  probably  an 
Arab  foundation;  it  played  a  part  in  the 
Reconquest  and  at  one  time  was  a  sepa¬ 
rate  kingdom  from  Navarre.  Seven  kings 
reigned  there  and  these  are  they:1 

i.  Sancho  Abarca  (Sancho  II  of 

Pampeluna),  905-c.  —  926.  He  won 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  W  A  Y 

397 

back  from  the  Arabs  most  of  the  Rioja 

1  (which  the  Chronicle  of  Albelda  calls 
Cantabria)  even  from  Najera  to  Tudela. 
f  He  married  Doha  Toda. 

2.  His  son  (D.  Garda)  he  called  to 
share  the  throne,  giving  him  conquered 
land  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Ebro  with 
the  title  of  King  of  Najera.  Abderraman 
brought  up  a  huge  army  and  though  D. 
Garcia  fell  back  and  Qrdono  II  of  Leon 

1  came  to  his  help,  yet  the  two  kings  were 

Valdejun- 

defeated  in  the  battle  of  Valdejunquera. 

quera 

;  Abderraman  pushed  into  France  by  Jaca 
and  Somport  and  D.  Garcia  followed 
after  him  and  recovered  as  far  as  Cala- 
horra.  He  founded  Albelda  and  with 
;  his  queen  Dona  Teresa  gave  much  to  S. 

|  Millan.  He  died  in  970. 

|  3.  His  son  Sancho  kept  the  kingdom 

for  eighteen  years  against  Almanzor,  by  a 
sort  of  guerrilla  practice,  now  withdraw¬ 
ing,  anon  harrying  the  Moor.  He  died 
in  995  and  is  buried  in  S.  Maria  on  the 
north  side,  with  his  queen  Dona  Urraca. 

4.  D.  Garcia  el  Tembloso  was  no 
coward:  lie  fought  at  Calatanazor  in  998, 

; 

Calata- 

and  died  the  next  year.  Dozy  explains 

Hazor 

this  famous  victory  as  a  pure  fabrication  2 

|  AND  MONOGRAP  OS 

1 

398 

W  AY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

Romance 
of  Dona 
Mayor 

to  salve  the  Spanish  pride:  it  has  raised 
for  us  at  any  rate  the  mysterious  wailing 
figure  on  the  shores  of  Guadalquiver 
who  cried  aloud  in  a  grievous  voice,  in 
Arab  and  Spanish,  thrice: 

En  Calatanazor 
perdio  Almanzor 
el  tambor! 

5.  Sancho  cl  Mayor,  whose  queen 
Dona  Munia  or  Elvira  is  also  called 
Dona  Mayor.  She  built  the  bridge  at 
Puente  la  Reyna.  In  1001  she  signed  a 
document  conjointly  with  him  and  with 
D.  Ramiro,  who  is  called  Regulus. 

He  was  a  bastard  son  of  the  king’s,  but 
his  mother  was  a  great  lady,  either  Dona 
Caya  of  Aybar,  or  a  Castilian  heiress.  The 
Chronicle  3  and  the  Romances  both  tell 
one  story  about  this  prince.  The  queen 
had  a  horse  fleet  and  sure  given  her  by 
the  king,  and  her  eldest  son  begged  it  of 
her,  and  in  the  end,  by  the  advice  of  her 
castellan,  she  refused  to  give  away  the 
king’s  gift.  Then  her  eldest  son  conspired 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

399 

with  his  two  brothers  to  accuse  her  to  the 

king,  involving  the  castellan,  and  there 

was  nothing  for  Dona  Elvira  but  the 
ordeal  of  fire.  At  the  day  and  hour,  how-1 

The  Good 
Knight 

ever,  a  good  knight  came,  and  the  young 
men,  bethinking  themselves,  sent  a  monk 
of  Najera,  to  stipulate  for  pardon  if  they 
should  confess,  and  in  the  end  they  did. 
The  champion  was  D.  Ramiro.  Then  the 
queen  put  out  D.  Garcia  her  eldest  son, 
the  mischief-maker,  from  the  inheritance 
of  Castile,  and  the  kingdom  of  Aragon, 
which  was  her  own  she  gave  to  D.  Ramiro 
her  stepson.  That  was  a  great  woman, 
say  I. 

Sancho  el  Mayor  conquered  from  the 
Arabs  Sobrarbe  and  Ribagorza,  and 
from  Leon  all  the  land  between  Cea  and 
Pisnerga,  and  divided  his  lands  among 
his  four  sons,  and  died  in  1035. 

6.  Garcia  IV  Si  de  Najera,  con¬ 
quered  D.  Ramiro  and  took  Aragon, 
reconquered  Calahorra,  dowered  S.  Ma - 

Atapuerca  j 

ria  de  Najera,  and  after  reigning 
twenty-four  years,  four  months  and 
some  days,  died  fighting  his  brother 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

400 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

And  good6, 
fair6,  white 
she  hete. .  . 

Ferdinand  of  Castile,  in  the  battle  of 
Atapuerca,  in  the  year  1054. 

7.  Sancho  the  Noble  el  de  Penalcn, 
was  killed  in  the  wood  by  his  brethren, 
1076.  With  this  for  an  excuse,  Alfonso 
VI  of  Castile  took  the  Rioja  and  Sancho 
Ramirez  of  Aragon  took  Navarre. 

This  is  the  end  of  the  kings  in  Ndjera. 
The  wife  of  D.  Sancho  the  Noble  is  called 
in  her  epitaph,  like  Chaucer’s  lady,  “the 
White”  for  her  sweet  soul’s  sake,  and 
Placencia  for  her  gentle  ways,  but  for  all 
her  pleasantness  her  paths  were  not  of 
peace.  When  the  king  was  murdered,  she 
disappeared  from  history. 

There  was  another  good  queen  Blanche 
buried  at  Najera,  the  daughter  of  Garcia 
Ramirez  cl  Restaurador ,  wife  of  Sancho  el 
Dcseado  of  Castile,  mother  of  Alfonso  VIII 
el  de  las  Navas.  She  bore  a  son,  and  died; 
but  her  husband  lit  a  silver  lamp  above 
her  tomb,  that  burned  for  centuries. 

The  church  was  dedicated  on  Saturday 
the  12th  December,  1052,  and  endowed 
with  most  amazing  gifts.  The  complete 
inventory  of  that  dowry  has  been  pub- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

401 

lished  by  Dr.  D.  Constantino  Garran  and 
may  be  bought  on  the  spot,  so  may  be 
spared  here:  instead,  we  may  consider  a  list 
of  the  books  that  a  king  borrowed  thence 
at  one  time.  In  the  thirteenth  century, 
Alfonso  X  borrowed,  against  a  receipt  and 
in  good  form,  from  the  prior  and  monks 
of  S.  Mary  of  Najera,  besides  other  books, 
the  Bucolics  and  Georgies  of  Virgil,  Epis¬ 
tles  of  Ovid,  Tkebaid  of  Statius,  poems 
of  Prudentius,  two  books  of  Donatus,  the 
great  grammar  of  Priscian,  the  Consola¬ 
tions  of  Boethius  and  his  commentary  on 
the  ten  predicaments,  Scipio’s  Dream  of 
Cicero,  the  Libro  Juizgo  (the  Visigothic 
code) ,  a  catalogue  of  Gothic  kings,  a  treatise 
on  jurisprudence  (“un  libro  de  justicia”), 
the  History  of  the  Kings,  the  History  of 
Isidore  the  Younger,  and  the  Book  of  Illus¬ 
trious  Men  by  S.  Jerome  or  S.  Isidore  or 
both.  4 

According  to  tradition,  the  foundation  of 
Najera  was  on  this  wise:  D.  Garcia  was 
hunting  and  pursued  the  prey  into  a  cave 
where  he  found  an  image  of  the  Virgin. 
He  adored  and  built  a  church.  The  cave 

Books 

borrowed 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

402 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Virgeti  de 
la  Cueva 

is  there  to  prove  it,  westward  of  the  church 
but  opening  into  it,  and  the  tombs  of  the 
kings  lie  within  or  before  it,  and  the  image 
reigns  at  the  high  altar  of  the  church.  It 
is  completely  habited  and  not  easy  to  see, 
but  from  photographs  appears  archaic 
work  of  the  thirteenth  century.  In  the 

del 

Alcazar 

cave  is  enshrined  another  image,  the 
Virgin  of  the  Alcazar,  that  Sr.  Lamperezs 
attributes  to  the  close  of  the  twelfth. 

Independ¬ 

ence 

Of  the  early  church  and  sepulchre  of 
kings,  founded  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century  and  consecrated  1056, 
nothing  remains:  the  church  was  rebuilt 
by  Prior  Pedro  Martinez  de  S.  Coloma, 
1422-1456;  the  cloister  in  the  next  century; 
the  royal  burial  place,  by  Fray  Rodrigo  de 
Gadea,  1556-1559.  D.  Garcia  Sanchez  had 
brought  monks  from  Cluny  and  settled 
them  there;  in  i486,  on  Monday  the  8th 
May,  the  monks  elected  their  first  abbot 
independent  of  Cluny,  D.  Pablo  Martinez 
de  Urunuela.  6 

In  the  church,  the  transepts  and  nave 
of  six  bays  are  unusually  high,  with  vault 
sexpartite  or  star-ribbed;  there  is  a  true 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

403 

clerestory  and  a  curious  series  of  openings, 
like  a  triforium,  on  the  south,  which  gives 
access  to  the  vaults.  The  apses  are  square; 
the  buttresses,  without,  cylindrical  and 
big  as  towers,  like  those  of  Albi  and  of 
Assisi.  There  are  low  galleries  over  the 
transepts  and  the  west  end,  all  these  in 
clausura  of  course;  and  a  glorious  south 
chapel  of  two  bays  with  stalls  and  tomb 
recesses;  but  nothing  breaks  the  soaring 
beauty  and  noble  grace  of  this  thrice  royal 
church.  The  stalls,  late  Gothic,  were 
made  in  1495  by  Master  Andrew  and  Mas¬ 
ter  Nicholas:  the  organ  doors,  in  Antwerp 
now,  were  painted  perhaps  by  Memling. 

The  Claustro  de  los  Caballeros  is  built, 
lofty  and  long,  in  five  bays  by  seven  of 
plateresque  that  simulates  Gothic;  begun 
under  Abbot  Juan  de  Llanos  (15 17-21)  it 
was  ended  under  Abbot  Diego  de  Valma- 
sida,  (1521-28);  on  either  side  the  walls,  on 
every  pier,  a  canopied  niche  had  once  held 
a  saint,  and  tomb  recesses  open  down  three 
sides  of  it.  Here  lies  that  Lopez  de  Haro 
called,  by  exception,  the  Good,  and  a 
quaint  use  survived  about  his  tomb  from 

Albi  and 
Assisi 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

404 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Examen  de 

varones  .  .  . 

his  death  in  1214  down  into  the  last  cen¬ 
tury.  When  a  Corregidor  or  a  new  Council 
was  elected  in  the  city,  the  Council  went 
in  procession  from  the  Casa  Consislorial 
to  the  tomb,  on  which  was  laid  a  pall,  and  a 
carpet  was  laid  on  the  pavement,  and  two 
candles  were  lit.  Then,  they  standing  in  a 
semicircle,  the  presiding  member  handed 
the  sealed  ballot  to  the  scrivener,  and  he 
broke  it  open  and  read  the  election  aloud. 

Eastward,  in  the  chapel  of  Holy  Cross, 
lies  like  a  foundress  Dona  Mencia  Lopez 
de  Haro.  Her  mother  was  a  sister  of 

In 

S.  James’ 
church 
he  sleeps 

Ferdinand  the  Saint,  her  first  husband 
was  a  knight  of  his,  for  whose  honour  and 
glory  she  defended,  with  a  handful  of 
gentlewomen  and  maidservants  her  castle 
of  Martos,  when  the  Moorish  king  Alhamar 
besieged  her  there.  In  her  widowhood,  a 
king  of  Portugal  married  her,  infatuate 
with  her  beauty,  her  charm  and  her  person¬ 
ality,  and  she  ruled  the  realm  as  though 
it  were  her  own  inheritance.  In  the  end 
Portugal  was  lost,  D.  Sancho  died  for¬ 
lornly  at  Toledo,  while  she  came  back  to 
Najera  where  she  had  grown  up,  and 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

founded  this  chapel,  December  7,  1272, 
with  four  chaplains,  “that  masses  might 
be  sung  for  her  soul  every  day,  even  until 
the  end  of  the  world.”  Did  she  feel  that 
they  were  needed  so? 


Door  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 


406 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

VIII 

TWO  ROAD-MENDERS 

The  world  is  his  house. 
He  serves  all  men  alike; 
ay,  and  for  him  the  beasts 
have  equal  honour  with  the 
men.  No  man  is  depen¬ 
dent  on  his  earnings,  all 
men  on  his  work. 

—  Michael  Pairless. 

Travellers  in  Italy  may  recall,  some 
of  them,  a  valley  hidden  away  in  the  heart 
of  the  Central  Apennine,  behind  Gubbio, 
between  Scheggia  and  Fossombrone.  It  is 
entered  through  a  land  bare  as  the  Sistine 
Creation  of  Adam,  it  is  left  by  the  Furlo 
Pass  where  the  Romans  ran  their  road 
through  the  living  rock  of  the  mountain 
flank.  The  capital  city  is  Cagli.  As, 
before  an  invading  race,  the  indigenes 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


407 


withdraw  to  mountain  fastnesses,  and  the 
last  tribe  of  those  who  once  held  the  land 
smoulders  away  among  the  highest  peaks,  Spain 
so,  before  the  railway  and  the  factory  town,] 

Italy  found  asylum  there — -the  romantic 
Italy  of  our  grandfathers’  past,  of  Claude 
and  Wilson,  of  Richardson  and  Byron,  and 
under  the  stone-pine  and  the  vine-wreathed  [ 
elm,  dreams  eternally.  In  much  the  same  [ 
way  the  campo  about  S.  Domingo  keeps 
still  unspoiled  the  romantic  Spain  of  the 
Elizabethan  and  the  Augustan  age.  Here  ] 
tawny  Spain,  lost  to  the  world’s  debate,  re- 1 
joicing  in  the  abundance  of  com  and  vine,  j 
salutes  the  coy  dawn  with  the  tinkling  j 
bells  of  mule-trains,  and  wakes  the  early 
moonlight  with  pipe  and  guitar.  Translu¬ 
cent  grapes,  flushed  peaches,  freckled 
pears,  with  white  and  powdery  bread, 
strong  and  limpid  wine  that  glitters  like 
jewels  in  the  reddened  glass, — these  trans- 1 
mute  into  something  venerable  and  sacra-  j 
mental  the  ancient  sun-burnt  mirth.  Gnj 
every  hand  the  land  is  green,  and  the 
campo  of  La  Calzada  is  famed  as  far  as 
once  the  kuerta  of  Sahagun.  The  cool  well- 


MONOGRAPHS 


408 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Unspoiled 

water  is  abundant,  wholesome,  and  delicious. 
The  town  plants  poplars  and  sycamores 
in  multiplied  rows  along  the  roadside, 
till  camino  becomes  paseo,  turning  the 
dusty  track  into  a  place  of  solace  and 
refreshment.  Women  are  handsome  here, 
babies  clean,  men  devout.  Only  of  late  a 
narrow  line  of  railway  has  pushed  down 
from  Haro,  and  the  spell  of  the  sleepy 
centuries  is  not  yet  rent.  It  is  strange  in 
a  world  of  trippers  and  tourists  to  find  a 
happy  land  so  abounding  in  its  own  kindly 
life,  and  a  church  so  richly  undespoiled, 
still  intact  of  dealers  and  restorers. 

Two  saints  hereabouts  in  the  twelfth 
century  took  care  of  God’s  poor  and  God’s 
pilgrims,  Dominic  of  the  Causeway  and 
John  of  the  Bramble-Bush.  Says  Govantes 1 
— and  the  account  seemed  good  enough  for 
Madrazo2  to  transcribe  with  only  verbal 
alterations: — In  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  there  were  a  number  of  saints 
whose  piety  was  directed  to  helping  pil¬ 
grimages  to  holy  places,  and  who  mended 
old  roads,  built  new  ones,  erected  bridges, 
and  founded  hospitals  and  hospices.  This 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

A  Mountain  Town 


THE  WAY 

411 

fell  in  with  the  wishes  of  Alfonso  VI. 
Possibly  S.  Domingo  had  retired  to  an 
anchorite’s  life  in  an  old  palace  or  castle 
which  stood  where  now  the  city  stands,  a 
league  to  the  south  of  the  bridge  by  which 
the  Roman  road  crossed,  that  ran  from 
Italy  to  Astorga;  and  seeing  the  distress 
of  the  pilgrims  he  set  about  relieving  it. 
The  river  Oja,  though  usually  a  slender 
stream,  gets  up  in  thaw  or  in  rainy  weather 
and  is  dangerous  enough.  He  probably 
built  so  far  from  the  Roman  bridge  and 
turned  his  road  out  correspondingly,  either 
to  take  the  stream  where  it  was  narrower, 
being  nearer  to  the  mountain,  or  to  get  a 
better  foundation  for  the  piers.  Beside 
the  bridge  he  built  a  hospice  or  free  lodg¬ 
ing  and  served  there  humbly:  thus  the  new 
settlement  began.  In  the  Flos  Sanctorum 
it  is  said  that  S.  Domingo  was  an  Italian, 
who  for  love  of  God  sold  his  patrimony  and 
distributed  it  to  the  poor,  and  then,  to  be 
more  entirely  in  the  state  of  a  pilgrim  and  a 
stranger,  passed  over  into  Spain  and  sought 
admission  in  the  Benedictine  convent 
of  Valbanera.  He  was  denied  for  alleged 

S.  Domin¬ 
go  de  la 
Calzada 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

I 

412 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

S.  Domin¬ 
go  de  Silos 

illiteracy;  the  same  happened  at  S.  Millan. 
This  was  about  1050:  that  year  the  locusts 
ate  up  everything,  and  S.  Gregory  of  Ostia 
came  preaching  a  mission:  S.  Domingo 
joined  him  and  stayed  with  him  until  his 
death.  Then  he  settled  down  in  a  place 
of  thick  forests  and  shameless  highway¬ 
men,  built  his  cell  and  a  chapel  to  Our 
Lady,  and  afterwards  burnt  off  the  woods 
and  built  a  causeway.  Here  S.  Domingo 
de  Silos  visited  him,  and  the  two  held  holy 
converse  together,  and  he  approved  his 
labours  and  travails.3  Alfonso  VI  when, 
after  the  death  of  D.  Sancho  el  de  Penalen, 
he  took  possession  of  the  kingdom  of 
Najera,  gave  to  S.  Domingo  all  the  land 
he  needed  for  his  works,  and  he  built  a 
little  church,  consecrated  1105.  There  he 
lived,  attending  to  travellers  and  in 
especial  nursing  those  who  needed  him, 
till  he  was  very  old.  He  died  in  1109. 

A  hundred  years  later,  his  figure  enters, 
familiar,  easy  to  identify,  in  the  Vision  of 
the  Ploughman  Thurkill:  though  the  Eng¬ 
lish  chroniclers  could  not  recognize  his 
name,  the  Pilgrims  knew  it  perfectly.  He 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

4i3 

is  the  Warden  of  the  Basilica  which  is  the 
gathering-place  of  souls  and  the  goal  of  the 
long  Causeway,  and  S,  James  himself  com¬ 
mits  the  visitor  to  his  charge.  The  Apostle, 
by  the  way,  figures  there  in  a  mitre  as 
Metropolitan  and  Primate  of  the  Spains; 
and  for  the  same  reason  he  is  arrayed  with 
mitre  and  crozier  when,  with  S.  Millan,  in 
the  Apparition  of  Simancas,  they  turned  the 
day.  Gonzalo  de  Berceo  is  explicit  about 
the  nature  of  the  great  twain: 

Twins 

White  Horsemen  who  ride  on  white 
horses,  0  fair  to  see, 

They  ride  where  the  rivers  of  Paradise 
flash  and  flow. 

Now  the  abbey  of  S.  Millan  de  la  Cogolla 
lies  not  many  miles  away,  to  southward  of 
the  Road,  and,  as  related,  legend  connects 
S.  Domingo  with  it:  the  account  which 
determined  Thurkill’s  vision  in  this  part, 
will  have  been  picked  up  here  in  LaCalzada. 

The  place  was  called  in  those  days,  Bur- 
go  de  Santo  Domingo.  The  new  road,  the 
safe  crossing  over  the  bridge,  the  convenient 

S.  Millan 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

414 


WAY  OF 


S .  JAMES 


Bishop 

Covel 


Kings 

reside 


lodging,  the  good  site,  the  level,  fresh, 
fertile  and  healthful  land,  drew  settlers. 
The  Bishop  of  Burgos  laid  a  hand  on  them, 
the  Bishop  of  Calahorra  warned  him  off: 
the  case  was  put  to  arbitration  by  the  king’s 
order  and  Calahorra  was  sustained;  this 
being  in  1137.  Alfonso  VII  the  Emperor, 
who  had  seen  to  this,  with  his  wife  Dona 
Berenguela,  dowered  the  city  in  1147  with 
a  share  of  woods,  mountains,  pasture  and 
grass-land,  and  water  rights.  In  1152 
the  Bishop,  D.  Rodrigo  Cascante,  raising 
the  church  to  collegiate  rank,  decided  to 
enlarge  and  rebuild.  In  1168,  with  royal 
help  the  work  was  begun ;  in  1 180  the  offices 
were  sung  in  the  new  church;4  in  1232 
Gregory  IX  transferred  thither  the  see, 
at  the  request  of  the  chapter  and  Bishop 
D.  Juan  Perez,  the  situation  of  Calahorra 
being  both  unwholesome  and  perilous. 
The  lordship  of  the  town  belonged  to  the 
chapter  till  in  1350  S.  Ferdinand  took  it 
over  to  the  Crown,  giving  an  equivalent. 
The  king  D.  Peter  rebuilt  the  walls;  his 
successor  D.  Henry  died  within  them,  on 
Sunday  the  twenty-second  of  May,  1379. 


I  HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  WAY 

4i5 

In  1440  the  shrine  of  the  saint  was  ordered 
by  Bishop  D.  Diego  Lopez  de  Zuniga. 
In  1517  the  cloister  was  begun,  finished  in 
1550.  The  splendid  detached  belfry  was 
built  in  1762-67  by  Master  Martin,  at  the 
expense  of  Bishop  Porras. 

Says  Cean  Bermudez : 5  the  king  D.  Alonso 
VIII  and  the  Bishop  of  Calahorra  and 
Najera,  D.  Rodrigo  Cascante,  laid  the  first 
stone:  the  work  lasted  seventeen  years, 
and  was  not  finished  when  in  1180  the  see 
of  Najera  was  transferred  thither,  though 
the  divine  offices  were  celebrated.  It 
consists  of  three  naves,  and  is  of  a  robust 
and  heavy  architecture,  without  grace  or 
elegance,  as  were  all  the  edifices  of  that 
age.  It  was  finished  in  1235  when  it  was 
raised  to  a  cathedral.  This  is  hard  to 
reconcile  with  the  sentence  before,  about 
the  transference  of  the  see :  all  accounts  are 
indeed  fairly  confusing.  The  name  of  the 
see,  according  to  Govantes,  runs  still  “of 
Calahorra  and  La  Calzada,  ”  though  Ma- 
drazo  says  it  was  joined  to  Burgos  in  1574. 
The  abbey  church  was  certainly  dedicated 
to  S.  Saviour,  as  the  retable  indicates, 

• 

Robust 
and  heavy 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

416 


W  A  Y 


O  F 


S  .  JAMES 


Towers 

like 

S.  Leonard 


French 

plan 


though  some  confusion  is  caused  by  a  kind 
of  joint-ownership  with  S.  Mary,  explicable 
by  a  tradition  that  Madrazo6  also  records 
of  the  original  site’s  being  that  of  the 
little  sanctuary  of  the  Virgen  de  la  Plaza, 
against  the  great  belfry.  As  there  must 
have  been  some  such  tower  before  Master 
Martin’s  time,  it  is  wTorth  noting  that  at  S. 
Leonard  de  Limoges,  on  the  same  Cause¬ 
way,  the  tower  is  isolated  similarly. 

This  church  was  begun,  then,  in  1 168,  and 
within  twelve  years  was  fit  for  use.  There¬ 
after  building  went  on,  and  then  rebuilding. 
The  original  plan  is  plain,  and  is  French; 
and  especially  is  the  structure  French,  pier 
and  rib.  The  nave  is  three  bays  long,  the 
westmost  of  only  half  the  size,  as  though 
it  stood  once  between  two  western  towers: 
and  the  eastern  end  had  a  chevet  of  five,  an 
ambulatory  and  three  radiating  chapels 
with  a  plain  bay  in  between  these.  The 
Lady-chapel  survives,  and  the  next  bay 
north  of  it:  the  rest  has  been  rebuilt.  The 
north  transept  is  a  plain  strong  rectangle 
vaulted  octopartite,  like  the  nave.  The 
south  transept  has  been  rebuilt  with  a 


I  HISPANIC  NOTES 


THE  WAY 

417 

chapel  eastward  and  a  portal  of  the  full 
transept  width,  to  fit  the  shrine  of  the 
Saint:  also,  the  bay  just  west  of  this,  clear 

Western 

transept- 

across  the  church,  aisles  and  nave,  is  as 
high  as  the  crossing  and  as  richly  vaulted. 
Though,  where  only  one  transept  aisle 
occurs,  it  is  usually  on  the  eastern  face,  I 
believe  this  arrangement  to  represent  an 
original  divergence  from  the  norm  for  the 
sake  of  the  crowds  of  pilgrims,  giving,  with 
such  a  lofty  western  aisle  beyond  the 
transept,  a  vast  and  noble  environment  for 
the  shrine. 

aisle 

Master  Pedro  or  Juan  Rasines  rebuilt, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  capilla  mayor.  Andres  de  Najera  began 
the  stalls  in  1517;  in  the  end  of  the  same 
century  they  were  moved  down,  and  dam¬ 
aged,  and  a  lawsuit  followed:  in  1825  they 
were  damaged  again  by  fire,  and  repaired 
with  faithful  care  by  a  local  carver.  The 
retablo  mayor  belongs  to  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  it  is  beautiful  Renaissance 
work  in  the  style  of  Berruguete.  About 
this  woodwork  discussion  rages. 

Stalls 

The  stalls  of  S.  Maria  la  Real,  at  Najera, 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

418 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Cristiana  y 
Cat  61  tea 

hung  the  memory,  lost  among  men,  of  the 
perpetual  pilgrim  train. 

From  the  grey  square  of  buildings  came  a 
subdued  yelping,  as  from  a  box  of  puppies, 
that  rose  and  fell  in  the  quiet  sunlight, 
never  wholly  dying  away,  never  quite 
bursting  out  of  doors.  It  seemed  like  a 
drowsy  barrack,  at  first,  but  it  was  the 
monks’  day  school.  A  woman  on  the 
tramp  like  myself,  old  but  strong  and 
seasoned,  sat  down  under  a  green  bank, 
untied  her  kerchief  and  combed  her  grey 
hair,  smooth  as  flax  and  dark  as  iron 
there  in  the  windless  sun-steeped  air,  as 
the  Magdalen  combed  her  ruddy  tress  in 
the  Asturian  Romance.6  In  the  huge 
nave  of  the  church,  choked  up  by  the 
quire  that  blocked  the  floor  and  the  lattice 
that  guarded  the  tribunes,  a  lay  brother, 
filling  lamps  with  the  sweet  oil  of  the  olive, 
was  so  friendly  to  the  stranger  at  the 
outset,  and  so  sorry,  so  anxious  to  help, 
somehow,  when  he  discovered  by  close 
questioning  that  the  stranger  was  not 
cristiana,  which  is  caiolica  by  inter¬ 
pretation,  that  there  was  almost  danger 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE 


WAY 


419 


he  would  perform,  in  the  imminent  need, 
baptism  on  the  spot.  He  was  a  little 
consoled  by  unfeigned  admiration  of  the 
glorious  circular  sacristy,  built  as  for 
the  garde-robe  of  kings,  lighted  from  the 
noble  dome  and  furnished  with  presses 
and  mirrors  in  every  niche.  As  to  the 
little  church,  it  was  nothing  to  see:  not  a 
capital,  not  a  carved  stone,  not  a  curved 
wall  was  there  to  tip  you  the  wink.  All  the 
same,  the  serene  and  kindly  courtesy  of 
men  assembled  in  the  provision  store, 
proffered  it:  at  home,  they  would  be 
loafers  in  a  corner  grocery:  at  Samos  they 
were  — caballeros.  In  between  these  two 
churches  stands  the  ghost  of  one  that  was 
building  with  enthusiasm  in  1228,  sister  to 
the  great  cathedrals  of  S.  Ferdinand. 7 

For  the  afternoon,  there  was  no  choice. 
The  highway  ran  to  Sarria  and  there  would 
be  an  inn.  The  highway  glared,  but  it 
ran  straight  over  knolls  and  up  again, 
edged  with  youngling  trees,  ardent  as  a 
furnace,  alluring  as  a  gypsy  trail.  Once  a 
signboard  marked  where  a  fork  came  in 
from  Incio.  The  very  flies  in  iridescent 


A  little 
church  of 
the  ninth 
century 


A  lost 
church  of 
the 

thirteenth 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


420 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Andr6s  de 

S.  Juan 

Burgos  and  in  relation  with  Vigarny  four 
years  earlier,  for,  says  Dr.  Martinez  y  Sans, 
in  1513  the  work  of  Master  Philip  was 
valued  by  the  master-mason  Andres  de 
S.  Juan. 14  Moreover  in  Valladolid  in  1533 
he  served  on  the  same  commission  with 
Vigarny  and  one  Julio  Romano,  about  the 
valuation  of  the  retable  of  S.  Benito,  that 
Berruguete  had  just  finished. 1 5  To  have 
taken  two  or  more  workmen  from  Burgos 
into  the  Rioja,  makes  it  more  likely  that 
Maestre  Andres  was  really  formerly  at  Bur¬ 
gos,  and  this  contract  gives  us  another 
Frenchman,  of  name  unknown,  who  lived 
once  in  Burgos  in  the  time  of  Maestre  Felipe 
Vigarny,  sculptor  (before  1498-after  1532), 
and  Juan  de  Langres, 16  entallador  (known 
1522-1532).  From  S.  Domingo,  Maestre 
Andres  went  to  Valladolid,  where  he  was 
working  pretty  steadily,  between  1522  and 
1528,  on  the  stalls  of  S.  Benito:  he  was  living 
however  in  Covarrubias  in  1521,  and  as 
late  as  1531  he  reappears  in  the  Calceaten- 
sian  account-books  as  master  of  the  works 
on  the  trascoro.17  Apart  from  questions 
of  style,  it  is  unlikely  that  Master  Andrew 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

421 

should  be  judging  Renaissance  work  in 
1513  if  he  had  finished  mature  Gothic 
work  twenty  years  before,  and  it  is  almost 
impossible  that  one  of  the  judaizing  broth¬ 
ers  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  the  Rioja 
should  move  so  freely  and  be  fetched  from 
so  far  in  the  second  quarter  of  the  sixteenth, 
as  an  expert  qualified  and  highly  esteemed. 
He  would  be,  if  nothing  else,  at  any  rate 
too  old.  Here  then  within  forty  years, 
between  1493  and  1533,  we  have  two 
Masters  called  Andrew  and  quite  possibly 
three,  working  from  the  Ebro  to  the 
Pisuerga,  in  Navarre,  and  in  both  parts  of 
Castile. 

Before  the  retablo  mayor  comes  up 
again  the  whole  question  of  likeness  and 
unlikeness  in  names  and  personalities,  of 
documentary  evidence  and  the  evidence 
of  style.  The  retable  is  a  noble  and 
precious  work  of  the  Spanish  Renaissance, 
a  shade  less  mannered  and  agonized  than 
Berruguete’s  at  S.  Benito.  Straight  at  the 
sides,  level  at  the  top  and  bottom,  it  bent 
into  three  planes  to  accord  with  the  curving 
apse;  also,  it  wants  a  proper  predella.  In 

Retable 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

422 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Nudes 

the  central  place  is  the  Salvator  Mundi, 
above  that  the  Assunta,  above  that  an 
oculus  or  almond-shaped  glory  for  the 
Host.  On  either  side  are  four  great  panels 
of  the  life  of  Christ  where,  as  nudes,  the 
Baptism  supplies  a  pendant  to  the  Resur¬ 
rection;  between  and  beyond  these  panels, 
figures,  singly  or  in  pairs,  are  set  between 
columns  and  under  cornices,  and  flanking 
all,  another  row  of  statues,  freer  and  more 
sinuous,  rises  from  a  sort  of  console  formed 
by  leaning  figures.  As  in  the  Milanese,  the 
columns  are  treated  like  balustrades  and 

Formente 

candelabra;  the  friezes,  frankly  heathen, 
depict  not  only  young  fauns  and  old 
centaurs,  but  tritons  and  sea  nymphs, 
Eros  and  Amphitrite,  and  the  nude  is  not 
confined  either  to  sacred  persons  or  to 
putti. 

For  this  also,  Sr.  Marti  y  Monso  pub¬ 
lishes  some  documents. 1 8  It  seems  that 
the  sculptor  was  named  Formente,  that,  a 
citizen  of  Saragossa,  he  was  living  in  1539 
and  was  dead  in  1543;  that  of  his  two 
daughters  one  called  Esperanza,  married 
Bartolome  Garcia  and  the  other,  Isabel, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 


423 


left  no  other  heir:  the  daughter  and  niece 
of  these,  Ursula  Garcia,  was  married  to 
Jeronimo  Daza,  and  in  1569  she  gave  power 
to  Juan  Garcia  and  Juan  de  S.  Cruz  to  try 
to  recover  for  her  money  which  the  Dean 
and  Chapter  of  S.  Domingo  were  still 
owing  on  the  retable,  as  they  had  admitted 
in  1543.  Now,  of  course,  there  is  a  sculp¬ 
tor  ready  at  hand,  Damian  Forment,  who  and 
lived  one  time  in  Saragossa,  and  made  two  Foment 
retables  there,  and  one  in  Huesca,  besides 
one  for  Poblet  in  1517,  and  some  earlier 
work  at  Gandfa.  But  he  was  supposed 
to  be  dead  by  the  time  the  second  quarter 
of  the  century  commenced.  Cean  Ber¬ 
mudez  1 9  cites  a  document  of  the  chapter 
of  the  Pilar  dated  1511;  then  he  mentions 
the  retable  of  Huesca  contracted  for  in 
1521  and  finished  in  1533,  also  Gothic; 
and  finally  refers  to  two  notes  in  the  MS.  of 
Martinez:  first,  that  in  this  retable  For¬ 
ment  changed  his  style,  being  influenced 
by  Berruguete;  and  second,  that  when 
Charles  V  wrote  to  the  chapter,  begging 
for  the  services  of  the  sculptor  when  they 
had  done  with  him,  it  was  too  late,  for  he 


AND  MONOGRAPHS  I 


424 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Huesca 

had  died  shortly  after  completing  the 
work,  and  the  canons  had  buried  him 
in  the  cloister.  There  the  sacristan  still 
shows  an  epitaph,  which  is  not  Forment’s, 
as  Carderera  pointed  out,  but  of  his  com¬ 
position,  being  put  up  by  him  to  the 
memory  of  a  pupil  Pedro  Monjois.  Carde¬ 
rera  also  says  that  the  name  of  the  sculp¬ 
tor  does  not  occur  in  the  book  of  Obits  and 
Anniversaries,  which  he  has  scanned,  and 
which  one  would  expect  to  record  a 
memorial  of  him.  Still,  the  evidence  is 
negative  both  ways:  if  Forment  did  not 
necessarily  die  in  1 533,  yet  he  did  not  neces¬ 
sarily  live  to  quit  Huesca.  To  these  two 
works  we  must  add  the  retable  of  S.  Pablo 

Saragossa 

in  Saragossa,  given  eonjecturally  by  Cean 
Bermudez  and  since  confirmed  by  docu¬ 
ments.  These  three  have  everything  in 
common:  the  curious  shape,  raised  over 
the  central  compartment,  the  tall  canopied 
predella,  the  rich  interlacing  pattern  of 
the  frame,  like  stallwork;  the  deep  canopies 
over  groups  and  about  figures,  and  in  this 
Gothic  setting,  the  plastic  style  of  the 
Florentine  Renaissance.  This,  unluckily, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

425 

is  not  all  we  have  of  his  authentic  work: 
Sr.  Tramoyeres20  has  unearthed  the  con¬ 
tract  for  the  retablo  mayor  of  Poblet. 
Dated  April  2,  1527,  it  was  drawn  between 

Poblet 

Abbot  Pedro  Quexas  and  Damian  Forment 
del  regne  de  Valencia,  living  in  Saragossa. 
In  1531,  a  thousand  ducats  were  still  due 
him  on  it.  This  is  pure  Plateresque  work, 
made  up  of  columns  and  niches  from  which 
most  of  the  statues  have  gone,  but  one 
standing  figure  keeps  the  grave  beauty  of 
early  art.  Lastly,  he  was  to  make  a  re¬ 
table  for  the  cathedral  of  Barbastro.  The 
base,  still  unfinished,  fell  to  his  daughter 
at  his  death,  and  was  only  completed  in 
1560  by  a  pupil  of  his,  Juan  de  Liceire. 

Barbastro 

From  the  plates  of  retable  and  base  that 
Sr.  M.  de  Pano  publishes, 21  I  should  say 
that  the  groups  in  the  base  were  his  and 
the  design  of  the  enframing  parts,  but  not 
the  detail  of  these:  the  style  shows  still 
the  transition  to  pure  Plateresque,  to  the 

style  of  silver-smiths  and  not  of  wood- 
carvers.  Everywhere  his  beauty  is  a  little 
hard,  and  the  richness  is  mere  overlay. 
He  was  of  Valencia,  not  of  Aragon,  but  his 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

426 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Archaic 

Lucas 

Forment 

archaic  quality  of  resistance  serves  him 
like  a  northern  strain,  and  his  is  a  pure 
but  not  a  stubborn  art.  In  every  work  of 
Forment’s  that  we  know  for  his,  the  groups 
are  enclosed  in  boxes  or  niches;  the  figures 
have  a  setting  and  background  as  in 
painted  retables;  the  framework  is  made 
of  mouldings  and  vegetation;  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  the  retable  is  in  one  great 
plane,  and  not  bent  obliquely.  With  three 
Gothic  and  two  plateresque  works,  we 
have  plenty  on  which  to  base  a  judgment, 
and  as  in  the  case  of  Maestre  Andrews,  so 
here  in  the  Forment  case,  the  judgement 
confirms  the  first  opinion.  The  retable  of 
S.  Domingo  is  not  by  the  same  man  as  the 
retable  of  Huesca. 2  2  There  was  at  least  one 
other  Forment,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
who  was  also  a  sculptor  by  profession: 
Lucas  Forment,  in  1552,  was  witness  for 
Innocencio  Berruguete  about  the  recum¬ 
bent  effigy  of  Pedro  Gonzalez  de  Leon. 
He  was  then  twenty-four  and  had  known 
Berruguete  for  four  years,  and  his  testi¬ 
mony  was  rather  flippant,  viz.:  “If  he 
himself  had  that  piece  of  work  to  do 

1 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

427 

he  would  not  do  it  unless  they  gave  him 
more.”  23 

The  ritual  choir,  but  not  the  architec¬ 
tural,  is  denoted  by  the  Spanish  use  of  the 
word  coro,  and  it  is  necessary  to  have  in 
English  some  such  distinction  of  terms  when 
the  stalls  are  looked  for  in  the  nave.  I 
venture  to  propose  the  revival,  merely,  of 
the  elder  English  form  quire,  as  it  appears 
for  instance  in  the  rubric  that  provides  for 
an  anthem  “  in  quires  and  places  where 
they  sing.”  The  quire,  then,  of  S.  Domingo 
is  covered  on  the  south  side  with  paintings 
of  the  life  and  legend  of  the  saint,  in  their 
original  sixteenth -century  frames.  Opposite 
these  is  a  chapel  consecrated  to  a  local  devo¬ 
tion,  with  a  statue  of  the  titular,  the  Blessed 
Jerome  Thermosilla,  a  mitred  Abbot  in  a 
black  cloak  over  white  habit  and  scapular. 
In  a  chapel  once  dedicated  to  the  Baptist 
and  S.  Martin  but  now  oddly  enough  to  S. 
Teresa,  a  tall  retable  that  antedates  some 
of  the  rebuilding  and  the  present  invoca¬ 
tion,  yet  dim-glimmering  with  tempera  and 
leaf-gold,  reigns  above  an  altar-tomb  of  a 
knight  and  two  wall  tombs  with  recumbent 

The  quire 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

428 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  tombs 

effigies,  these  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
another  with  a  kneeling  pair  of  the  seven¬ 
teenth.  The  central  figure  is  D.  Pedro 
Juarez  de  Figueroa,  Lord  of  the  town  of 
Cuscurrita,  of  the  family  of  the  Dukes  of 
Frias  and  Counts  of  Haro,  who  died  in 
1418.  In  one  of  the  niches  lies  next  to 
his  spouse  Dona  Juana  Fernandez,  with  a 
book  in  his  hands  and  two  more  at  his  bed’s 
head,  D.  Pedro  Gonzalez  de  Santo  Domingo 
y  Samaniego,  sometime  Corregidor  of  Viz¬ 
caya  and  the  Encartaciones,  founder  of  one 
of  the  Mayorazgos  included  in  the  house  of 
the  Marquesses  of  Cerinuela  that  possess  the 
place.  That  word  Mayorazgo  means  here, 
manifestly,  a  title  and  the  estate  which 
goes  with  it,  devolved  upon  the  eldest 
son.  It  also  means  property  and  inherit¬ 
ance,  and  is  used  at  times  as  a  proper 
personal  title  of  the  eldest  son  before,  but 
also  after  (  I  think)  he  has  come  into  the 
property:  the  Mayorazgo  de  Labraz  is  just 
such  a  title  as  the  Master  of  Ballantrae.  An 
old  flag  hangs  here:  it  is  the  banner  of  the 
Alferez  Perpetual  of  the  city,  an  honour 
which  Philip  II  bestowed  on  his  guards- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

429 

man  D.  Francisco  de  Ocio  in  1566.  The 
Irascoro  is  adorned  with  huge  oil  paintings 
of  the  Passion;  Maestre  Andres’s  carvings 
have  disappeared.  In  the  chapel  of  the 
Magdalen,  on  the  north  side,  lies  D.  Pedro 
Carranza,  Apostolic  Protonotary  and  Maes- 
trescuela  of  Burgos  Cathedral,  in  a  lovely 
rich  tomb  carved  in  the  head  of  the  niche 
with  the  Annunciation.  He  built  the 
chapel  and  ordered  the  tomb  in  1539. 
The  chapel  of  S.  Andrew  belongs  to  the 
Mayorazgo  of  Tejada:  there  rests  D. 
Fernando  Alonso  de  Valencia,  sometime 
canon  of  the  cathedral,  who  died  in  1522, 
and  another  canon,  his  kinsman,  D.  Juan 
de  Valencia:  the  statues,  vested  exquisitely 
and  nobly  conceived,  are  from  the  hand  of 
some  unknown  Burgalese  sculptor. 

The  shrine  of  S.  Dominic  stands  in  the 
south  transept  painted  and  gilded  and 
carved  with  a  wealth  of  ornament  and 
a  complete  history  of  his  miracles.  The 
wrought-iron  grille  is  painted  and  gilded 
likewise ;  and  the  whole  is  just  such  another 
as  that  of  his  disciple  S.  Juan.  The  statue 
of  the  titular  was  made  and  placed  in 

Burgalese 

sculpture 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

- — 

1 

430 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

.  .  .  que 

cantd  la 
g  all  i  n  a 
asada 

1789,  the  sculptor  being  Julian  S.  Martin 
of  Burgos  (1762-1801.)  Above  the  west 
wall  of  this  transept,  behind  a  grating,  a 
fine  pair  of  white  fowls  cluck  and  scratch 
in  memory  of  the  most  famous  of  the 
miracles. 2  4  It  was  painted  by  Palmezzano, 
perhaps  from  Melozzo’s  designs,  in  the 
fifteenth  century  at  Forli,  where  the  chapel 
is  dedicated  to  S.  James,  the  church  to  SS. 
Blaise  and  Jerome. 25  It  was  painted  also 
in  the  Aracoeli,  in  Rome,  by  one  Juvenal  de 
Or vieto ,ini44i.  Jacob Sobieski mentions 2 6 
that  the  French  Pilgrims,  and  more  espe¬ 
cially  the  Poles,  feed  the  white  chickens 
thinking  that  if  these  eat,  they  will  get 
safely  to  Santiago.  The  editor  suggests, 
a  little  vaguely,  that  the  chickens  may 
have  prompted  the  story.  This  story,  as  I 
conceive,  although  it  occurs  within  the 
full  light  of  history,  offers  a  very  delicate 
instance  of  a  mythopoeic  process;  being 
probably  invented  a  pres  coup  to  explain 
some  Roman  relief  discovered  in  the 
twelfth  century  here,  somewhere  along 
the  line  of  the  Roman  street.  Mrs.  Arthur 
Strong  publishes  one  found  in  the  Rhine- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

43i 

land17  which  shows  all  the  dramatis  per¬ 
sonae  of  this  legend:  persons  seated,  by  in¬ 
tention  the  family  and  the  judge,  and  stand¬ 
ing,  by  interpretation  the  father,  and  the 
roasted  fowl  on  the  table.  The  tablet  bears 
suggestions  of  the  cult  of  Mithras;  such 
another  might  easily  turn  up  under  the 
plough  in  Spain  to-morrow. 

Mithras 

Sieur  des  Orties. 

This  was  the  little  fold  of 
separate  sky 

Whose  pasturing  clouds 
in  the  soul's  atmosphere 

Drew  living  light  from 
one  continual  year. 

— The  House  of  Life. 

The  day  was  yet  young  when  at  Zal- 
duendo  we  quitted  the  modern  highway 
and  for  some  three  miles  crossed  a  high 
rolling  moor,  odorous  with  box  and  rose¬ 
mary,  flushed  with  heather,  glad  with 
larks,  cooled  with  hill-bome  airs,  to  reach 
the  shrine  of  S.  Juan.  So  we  came  down, 
past  a  carved  stone  cross,  into  a  green  valley 
among  rustling  trees,  with  broad  smooth 
turf  before  the  door  and  stone  benches  in 

Enirar  de 
prisa  .  .  . 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

432 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

.  .  .  Yes 
descanso 
el  trabajar 

the  shade  for  the  elders  of  the  hamlet. 
The  Cura  had  said  his  Mass  long  before, 
and  gone  elsewhere  to  say  another,  but 
at  the  return  we  encountered  him  inside 
his  house-door  unsaddling  the  rough  ass 
like  a  younger  and  less  troubled  S.  Joseph. 
S.  John  his  patron  I  imagine  as  a  figure  not 
unlike  this,  small  and  friendly,  but  keener, 
with  the  engineer’s  face,  square  chin  and 
overhanging  brow,  spare  cheek  and  puck¬ 
ered  eyelid,  for  he  spent  his  life  at  laying 
out  roads  and  then  making  them,  at  plan¬ 
ning  high  bridges,  wide-arched  in  mid¬ 
stream,  narrower  in  the  shallows,  and  then 
cutting  the  stone  and  placing  it.  He  spent 
his  best  days  working  in  the  sun  and  direct¬ 
ing  other  workmen,  but  he  ended  them 
here,  in  a  grassy  dell,  on  a  stone  bench 
under  whispering  trees.  He  would  get  up 
when  a  pilgrim  came  around  the  turn, 
meet  him,  and  ask  the  news  as  they  reached 
a  quiet  room,  swept  and  scrubbed,  deep- 
windowed  and  strong  of  door,  cool  in  mid¬ 
summer,  warmed  in  snow-time;  and  from 
the  hearth  where  the  white  ash  always 
winked  and  lisped,  fetch  warm  water  and 

i 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

433 

if  needful  wash  a  man’s  feet;  he  would 
dish  up  a  stew,  tasting  of  meat,  and  savory, 
out  of  the  little  blackened  pot  that  sim¬ 
mered  there,  and  fill  a  horn  cup  from  the 
bloated  wine-skin  in  the  shed,  and  lastly 
show  a  bed,  warm,  well-shaken  up,  and 
clean.  He  slept  usually  on  the  floor 
himself.  He  who  had  given  orders  so 
long  would  hand  out  a  little  joke  with  the 
piece  of  bread  for  breakfast;  he  would 
answer  questions  and  remember  news  and 
report  the  state  of  the  roads  and  the  run 
of  the  weather  to  outgoing  travellers, 
from  the  account  of  those  returning.  He 
whose  advice  kings  had  requested  would 
serve  the  meanest,  and  tend  the  foulest, 
and  wait  upon  the  lustiest, — a  tiny  trot¬ 
ting  old  man,  white  headed  and  white 
handed  with  age,  with  tanned  and  shrivelled 
face.  In  1080  he  was  born;1  he  died  in 
1163. 

Certainly  he  began  this  church;  with 
three  apses,  the  central  one  arcaded  and 
adorned  with  carved  capitals  and  small 
windows  under  a  second  set  of  arcades. 
Inside,  the  semidome  of  this  apse  is  carried 

y  el  servir  es 
senorio  .  .  . 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

434 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Late 

Gothic 

stalls 

on  four  curious  heavy  ribs  that  taper 
upwards,  and  are  nicked  along  the  edges 
with  the  same  desire  to  decorate  as  S. 
Cuthbert’s  abbey  shows  on  the  high  hill 
at  Durham.  Each  apse  is  preceded  by  a 
pointed  barrel-vault,  but  the  high  crossing 
and  transept  of  two  bays  are  of  sound 
transitional  vaulting,  quadripartite.  The 
nave  consists  of  but  a  single  bay,  rebuilt, 
with  six  ribs  for  the  aisles  and  eight  for 
the  centre,  and  is  filled  up  with  a  choir 
gallery.  The  lovely  late  Gothic  stalls, 
up  there,  though  neglected,  recall  not  un¬ 
worthily  those  that  Najera  keeps  closed 
away,  and  those  that  Celanova  boasts 
were  fetched  from  Sahagun.  Behind  the 
north  apse  a  passage  leads  to  the  cloister, 
and  by  a  turning  stair,  to  the  upper  cloister 
and  tower.  The  eastern  capitals  of  the 
transepts,  and  these  of  the  chapels  opening 
therefrom,  are  original:  on  the  north  side, 
in  a  style  recalling  the  tabernacles  at  5. 
Juan  de  Ducro  in  Soria,  the  Annunciation 
and  Nativity;  on  the  south  side,  more 
delicate,  under  tabernacles,  the  Annuncia¬ 
tion  and  Visitation,  the  Epiphany  and 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

435 

Massacre.  The  piers  of  the  crossing  have 
finely  moulded  bases  and  pretty  grijfes; 
on  the  western  transept  face,  capitals 
and  balustrade  are  flamboyant  and  more 
commonplace.  They  belong  possibly  to 
the  time  when  Bishop  Pablo  de  S.  Maria 
restored  the  church,  the  rents,  the  income, 
and  the  offices,  sending  Jeronymite  monks 
from  Fres  del  Val,  in  1434. 2  Sr.  Lam- 
perez  distinguishes  in  the  early  work  two 
hands:  the  saint’s  own,  on  the  lesser  apses, 
and  the  lower  parts  of  the  central  one  and 
the  transepts,  and  another  on  the  high 
walls  and  vaults;  the  stones,  he  says, 
testify. 3  Florez  confirms  this, 4  saying 
that  this  building,  begun  in  1138,  got  as 
far  as  the  crossing,  being  all  of  stone.  He 
was  the  most  famous  architect  of  his  time 
in  Castile,  says  Cean  Bermudez, s  and  this 
notion  of  his  genius  is  confirmed  in  turn 
by  Sr.  Lamperez,  who  says:  “S.  Juan  de 
Ortega  appears  to  us  as  a  master  of  grand 
and  robust  conception,  and  of  the  purest 
Romanesque  style,  which  is  somewhat 
archaic  in  details,  and  belongs  to  no  deter¬ 
mined  school  of  architecture.”  Here,  that 

t 

Early  Ro¬ 
manesque 
building 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

436 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

The  Shrine 

is  to  say,  the  creative  imagination  has 
perfectly  fused  the  matter  and  brought 
forth  personal  and  perfect  work. 

The  shrine  of  the  saint,  which  is  simply 
a  rich  canopied  tomb  not  unlike  the  royal 
tombs  in  SS.  Creus,  stands  in  the  chapel  of 
S.  Nicholas,  now  the  parish  church.  This 

• 

was  the  original  chapel  that  S.  Juan  built 
in  thanksgiving  to  S.  Nicholas  of  Bari,  on 

Lord  of 

his  return  from  the  Holy  Land,  and  there 
he  must  have  said  his  daily  Mass  for  many 
years,  for  he  was  not  only  monk  but 
priest,  ordained  by  Bishop  Pedro  Nazar  of 
Najera.  In  the  course  of  time  men  had 
come  to  live  with  him;  amongst  these,  two 
nephews  of  his  named  John  and  Martin, 
and  he  had  organized  them  under  the  Rule 
of  S.  Augustine  and  had  his  household 
confirmed  by  the  Pope  in  Rome  in  1138, 6 
and  had  his  valley  confirmed  by  the  King 

Nettles 

D.  Sancho  in  1 142,  so  that  in  his  testament 

of  1152,  he  calls  himself  quaintly  Senior 
dc  Horlega,  the  Lord  of  Nettles. 

The  chapel  was  rebuilt  by  Isabella,  who 
had  come  in  pilgrimage,  seeking  a  child, 
in  1477:  now  the  saint  was  himself  an  only 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

1 - - - — — - — — — - - — - - - — 

THE  WAY 

437 

child,  for  twenty  years  desired,  and  he 
“was  an  especial  mediator  in  this  need,” 
says  the  chronicler.  He  gave  to  Isabel 
her  three  tragic  children;  the  prince  D. 
John,  cut  off  in  his  first  flowering,  who 
lies  inumed  at  Avila;  Joanna  the  Mad, 
and  the  most  unhappy  of  English 
queens,  called  Catharine  of  Aragon.  It 
is  recorded  that  when  the  monks  in  the 
year  1450  in  the  time  of  Bishop  Alonso 
of  Carthagena,  Fray  Gomez  de  Carrion7 
being  then  prior,  wished  to  translate  the 
body  of  the  Saint  into  the  church,  and  to 
that  intent,  in  the  presence  of  many  nobles 
and  prelates,  opened  the  tomb,  there  came 
out  from  it  a  multitude  of  white  bees,  with  a 
sweet  odour;  they  hummed  about,  they 
even  stung  the  obstinate,  and  the  tomb  was 
closed  again. 

Here  we  are  again  in  the  richest  vein 
of  folklore:  all  over  the  world  bees  are 
souls,  and  it  becomes  apparent  how  under 
the  form  of  bees  he  kept  the  hosts  of 
unborn  souls,  ready  for  women  who  should 
come  to  beg  for  babies.  There  is  a  Tyrolese 
figure  of  Frau  Holda  who  lived  in  a  moun- 

White  bees 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

438 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Frau 

Holda 

tain  and  kept  the  souls  in  a  big  chest,  not 
half  so  pat  as  this.  S.  Rita  of  Cascia  has 
also  a  swarm  of  these  white  bees,  but  as 
she  was  beatified  only  in  the  seventeenth 
century  and  canonized  in  the  twentieth  it 
is  not  easy  to  discover  from  her  legend  as 

S.  Rita 

then  drawn  up  and  confirmed  what  she  does 
with  them. 

A  pretty  story  Florez  also  preserves,  of 
an  ivory  crucifix  which  the  king  D.  Alfonso 
gave  to  him,  in  which  he  took  much  delight 
and  carried  it  about  and  conversed  with 

Helper  and 
Harbourer 

it,  and  one  day  when  he  had  no  one  to 
assist  at  Mass,  the  Crucifix  responded 
and  helped  him  to  the  end  of  Mass.  Cer¬ 
tain  of  his  miracles  as  Helper  and  Har¬ 
bourer  are  carved  around  the  base  of  the 
cenotaph  (the  body  itself  lies  in  a  stone 
coffin  underneath)  much  as  those  of  S. 
Sebald  may  be  read  about  his  shrine  in 
Nuremberg:  on  the  east  side  S.  Nicholas 
appearing  to  him  in  a  ship  at  sea:  on  the 
south,  the  restoration  of  a  man  that  fell 
asleep  by  the  roadside  and  a  loaded  cart 
passed  over  him;  and  the  return  of  the 
robbers  who  had  stolen  the  saint’s  cows 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

THE  WAY 

439 

and  wandered  all  night  in  a  fog,  and  in 
the  morning  found  themselves  with  their 
booty  at  the  convent  door.  The  north 
side  begins  with  the  history  of  how  his 
ass,  when  he  was  once  in  Najera,  broke 
its  headstall,  and  the  saint  when  cob¬ 
bling  it  wounded  his  own  eye  with  the 
needle,  but  when  the  Bishop  came  to  con¬ 
dole  with  him,  God  restored  the  sight  and 
he  arose  joyfully  to  greet  his  noble  guest. 
The  other  history  is  not  in  Ribadeneyra 
or  Florez:  two  dead  men  lie  under  trees, 
the  saint  prays  and  anon  a  monk  receives 
the  two  men  under  a  florid  Gothic  door. 
An  altar  set  against  the  west  end  hides 
the  remaining  subject.  It  was  set  up  in 
1474;  the  verja  is  dated  1561.  The  style 
is  charming,  fresh,  luxuriant,  and  delicate. 
With  James  and  his  brother  and  cousin, 
we  could  wish  to  make  three  tabernacles, 
for  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here.  Spes  lumen 
splendor 8  is  the  only  inscription  on  the 
shrine:  perhaps  it  means  that  John  of  the 
Nettles  was  set,  like  a  lighted  candle,  in  a 
golden  candle-stick. 

These  moors  are  a  part  of  the  mountains 

Spes  lumen 
splendor 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

440 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

.  .  .  y  salir 
corriendo 

of  Oca,  and  from  the  higher  levels  we 
looked  across  green  tilth  and  unripe  har¬ 
vest,  where  church-towers  drew  tree-tops 
about  them,  under  a  low-hung  sky,  to  a 
lofty  blue  chain  of  hills,  along  which 
sunstreaks  chased  the  shadow-streaks  of 
rain.  From  Zalduendo  to  Burgos  the 
road  is  modern  and  rather  dull,  easily 
flowing  over  the  unfrequented  hills  till  the 
high  shoulder  of  Miraflores  was  lifted  into 
sight  at  a  turning,  and  in  the  basin  of  the 
Arlanzon  the  city  lay,  every  spire  and 
tower  plain,  familiar,  and  very  fair. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

441 

NOTES:  BOOK  ONE 

CHAPTER  I 

See,  for  the  matter  of  this  chapter,  the 
following  books,  used  often  too  freely  or  too 
generally  for  page  reference: 

Dieulafoy,  Art  m  Spain  and  Portugal— 
Strzygowsky,  Orient  oder  Rom — Id.,  Klein- 
Asien — Butler,  Architecture  and  other  Arts — 
Spiers,  Architecture  East  and  West — Rivoira 
Le  Origini  della  Architettura  Lombarda — 
Lasteyrie,  L’ Architecture  Religieuse  en  France 
— Michel,  Histoire  de  I’Art — Lamperez,  His- 
toria  de  la  arquitectura  cristiana  espanola  en 
la  edad  media — Street,  Some  Account  of 
Gothic  Architecture  in  Spain. 

1  Gayet,  L’Art  Arabe,  p.  7. 

2  Lamperez,  Revue  Hispanique:  1907;  vol. 
XVI,  p.  565. 

1  Phene  Spiers,  Architecture  East  and  West, 
PP-  153-198. 

4  In  The  Thousand  and  One  Churches  with 
No.  32,  plan  p.  199,  cf.  S.  Juan  de  Banos; 
with  a  base  in  this  church,  p.  220,  and  a 
capital,  p.  2x6,  cf.  S.  Miguel  de  Linio:  with 
Ala  Klisse,  p.  451,  cf.  Sahagun.  This  is 
the  extent  of  likeness  that  I  have  found 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

442 

WAY  OF  S .  JAMES 

among  the  churches  explored  by  Miss  Bell 
and  Sir  William  Ramsey. 

s  Since  these  pages  were  written,  that 
brilliant  and  picaresque  figure  in  contempo¬ 
rary  letters,  has  passed  into  the  greater  glory. 
In  January  of  1917,  Emile  Bertaux  died  for 
France:  Dona  ei  requiem  sempiternam.  It 
seems  best,  however,  to  let  the  pages  stand  as 
they  were  once  written  in  the  hope  of  meeting 
his  eye  and  enjoying  his  commentary. 

6  The  words  are:  “Le  maitre  d’ceuvres 
,  .  .  de  la  cathedral  de  Tolede  dtait  Frangais, 
s’appellait  Petrus  Petri,  Pierre  fils  de  Pierre, 
et  mourut  en  1290.”  In  the  plan  of  the 
cathedral  “cette  alternance  ne  se  voit  que  lit 
et  dans  un  dessin  de  l’album  de  Villard 
d’Honnecourt,  donne  comme  le  fruit  de  sa 
collaboration  avec  Pierre  de  Corbie.  Le 
maitre  d’ceuvres  Petrus  Petri  serait-il  Pierre 
de  Corbie,  mort  en  ce  cas  tres  ag6,  ou  son 
fils.  ”  C.  Enlart,  in  Michel,  II,  ii,  1 1 1. 

i  He  wrote  Les  Architects  des  Cathedrals 
Gothiques. 

8  The  Commendatore  Rivoira  is  not  exempt 
from  this  charge  in  his  latest  book  on  L’Archi- 
tettura  Musulmana. 

» Out  of  a  clear  sky  comes  an  American 
instance  to  hand.  “If  the  unmistakable 
evidence  of  northern  imitation  did  not  exist 
in  the  literature  itself,  the  strong  current  of 
influence  in  the  arts  would  justify  us  in 
searching  for  it  or  even,  examples  failing,  in 
assuming  that  its  traces  were  lost.  The  arts 
spring  in  their  entirety  from  across  the  Pyre¬ 
nees,  and  are  a  voucher  for  the  French  domi- 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

443 

nation  which  we  have  already  discovered 
[read,  asserted ]  in  much  of  the  epic,  popular 
and  cultured,  in  religious,  lyric,  and  drama¬ 
tic  verse,  in  encyclopedic,  sententious,  and 
narrative  prose.”  The  false  process  of  the 
first  sentence  being  assisted  by  the  false 
statement  of  the  second  (italicized  here  for 
convenience)  the  great  gulf  between  influence 
and  origin  is  safely  passed.  V.  Post,  Mediae¬ 
val  Spanish  Allegory,  pp.  278-280. 

10  Kleinclauz,  Claus  Sluter,  p.  42. 

11  Album  de  Villard  de  Honnecourt,  pub¬ 
lished  by  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  and 
printed  by  Berthaud  Freres,  Paris. 

CHAPTER  II 

Gaston  Paris,  Histoire  Poetique  de  Charle¬ 
magne — Dozy,  Recherches,  II,  Le  Faux  Turpin, 
pp.  372  seqq. — Bedier,  Les  Legendes  Epiques, 
III—Fita  and  Guerra,  Recuerdos  de  un  viaje ■ — 
Baring  Gould,  Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 

1  Bedier,  Les  Legendes  Epiques,  III,  98-9. 

2  Thomas,  L’Entree  d’Espagne,  Society  des 
Anciens  Textes  Frangais,  Paris,  1913. 

3  Cf.  Roger  of  Hovenden  Rerum  Brit.  Script. 
II,  147:  “Port  of  Cise  was  called  Port  of 
Spain.” 

4  This  identification  is  probably  wrong. 
The  Sant  Mart  of  hearsay  was  more  likely  S. 
Marta  de  Tera  in  the  diocese  of  Palencia,  a 
pilgrimage  place  with  a  Romanesque  church 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

444 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

and  sculpture  of  the  decadent  school  of  Tou¬ 
louse. 

s  Mussafia,  La  Prise  de  Pampeluna,  Vienna, 
1864. 

6  So  substantially,  says  M.  B6dier,  op.  cit., 

HI,  134. 

^  La  Prise  de  Pampelune,  1.  5686. 

3  Id.,  1.  5836. 

» Id.,  1.  6025. 

10  Alton,  Anseis  von  Karthago,  in  Biblio- 
thek  des  Litterarischen  Vereins  in  Stuttgart. 
Vol.  194,  Tubingen,  1892. 

11  Id.,  1.  3538. 

12  In  this  matter  of  S.  Charlemagne  cf.  Gas¬ 
ton  Paris,  IListoire  Poetique  de  Charlemagne, 
pp.  58-66. 

13  Bouillet,  Liber  de  Miraculis  S.  Fidis,  1897. 

CHAPTER  III 

Fita  et  Vinson,  Le  Codex  de  S.  Jacques — 
Fita  y  Guerra,  Recuerdos  de  un  viaje — Acta 
Sanctorum— Dozy,  Recherches. 

1  Delisle,  Notes  sur  le  Recueil:  Passim. 

2  Analecta  Hymnica,  XVII,  218. 

3  Murguia,  Galicia,  p.  419. 

<  For  the  dates  and  incidents  of  the  Miracles 
v.  Appendix. 

3  Fita,  Recuerdos  de  un  viaje,  p.  43. 

6 1  should  not  have  analysed  the  Codex 
so  fully  in  this  and  the  following  chapter,  if 

I  had  known  sooner  that  it  figures  in  Ward’s 
Catalogue  of  Romancesl  It  is  also  discussed 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

445 

by  Friedel  under  the  title  Etudes  Compostel- 
lanes  in  Olia  Merseiana,  but  to  little  purpose, 
for  lack  of  comprehension  how  things  stood 
in  Spain. 

i  G.  Paris,  Histoire  P oetique  de  Charlemagne, 
p.  58. 

8  Caxton,  Golden  Legend,  “The  Life  of 
S.  James  the  More.’’ 

»  Fita,  Recuerdos,  p.  69. 

10  For  the  Apparition  at  Simancas  consult 
Gonzalo  de  Berceo  in  the  Life  of  S.  Milldn : 

.  .  .  Vieron  dues  personas  fermosas  y 
lucientes, 

mucho  eran  mas  blancas  que  las  nevies 
recientes; 

vinien  en  dos  caballos  plus  blancos  que 
cristal, 

armas  quales  non  vio  nunqua  omne  m  ortal : 
el  un  tenia  croza,  mitra  pontifical, 
el  otro  una  cruz,  omne  non  vio  tal.  .  .  . 

Et  que  tenia  la  mitra  e  la  croza  en  mano, 
essi  fue  el  apostol  de  Sant  Juan  hermano, 
el  que  la  cruz  nia  e  el  capiello  piano, 
esse  fue  Sant  Millan  el  varon  cogellano. 
Vida  de  S.  Milldn,  stanzas  437,  438,  447. 

11  P.  Claudel,  Corona  Benignitatis:  Anni 
Dei,  p.  83. 

12  Fita,  Recuerdos,  p.  63. 

13  Congres  Scientifique,  Bruxelles,  1894:  L. 
Duchesne,  Les  A  nciens  Recueils  des  Legendes 
Apocryphes. 

1  <  Gdmez  Carrillo,  Flores  de  penitencia, 

pp.  11-14. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

446 

W  A  Y  OF  S .  JAMES 

1  s  Duchesne,  5.  Jacques  en  Galice,  in  A  ntia- 
les  du  Midi,  1900,  pp.  145  seqq. 

16  Cf.  Espafia  sagrada,  XX,  473. 

CHAPTER  IV 

Fita  et  Vinson,  Le  Codex  de  S.  Jacques — 
Daux,  Les  Chansons  des  Pelevins  de  S.  Jacques 
— Baron  Bonnot  d’Houet,  Pelerinage  d’un 
Paysan  Picard — Fita  y  Guerra,  Recuerdos  de 
un  viaje— B€d\tr,  Les  Legendes  Epiques — 
Friedel,  Etudes  Compostellanes. 

1  Published,  the  former  in  Fita,  Recuerdos  de 
un  viaje,  p.  45,  the  latter  in  Leclerc,  Histoire 
Litteraire  de  la  France,  XXI,  276.  Also  in 
Dreves,  Analecta  Ilymnica,  XVII,  210,  213. 

2  Fita  y  Guerra,  Recuerdos  de  un  viaje,  p. 
45- 

3  Murguia,  Galicia,  p.  45. 

*  Lopez  Ferreiro,  Historia  de  la  S.  A.  M. 
Iglesia,  VI,  51,  84. 

s  Pierce  Butler,  Legenda  Aurea,  p.  12,  citing 
Echard,  Scriptores  Ordinis  Prcedicatorum,  I, 

5 1 4.  This  quotation,  which  I  am  compelled  to 
take  at  second  hand,  was  certainly  not  under¬ 
stood  by  Dr.  Butler.  Considering  the  life 
and  acts  of  Fray  D.  Berenguel  and  his  devo¬ 
tion  to  S.  James  for  protection  during  the 
stormy  months  that  followed  his  election,  it  is 
likely  that  what  he  projected  was  a  much 
fuller  collection  of  miracles  brought  up  to 
date.  Indeed,  in  Caxton’s  Golden  Legend 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

447 

the  story  of  Hermogenes  and  that  of  the 
Translation  are  given  “as  Master  John  Be- 
leth  saith,”  and  the  miracles  thereafter  “as 
Calixtus  the  pope  saith,”  and  “Hugo  of 
S.  Victor  rehearseth,”  and  “Hugh  the  abbot 
of  Cluny  witnesseth.”  In  short,  they  corres¬ 
pond  fairly  well  with  the  Book  of  S.  James. 
How  much  of  this  was  in  the  original  text  of 
the  Genoese,  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  say; 
only  I  know  that  the  loss  of  Archbishop  Beren- 
guel’s  intended  compilation,  can  never  be 
enough  deplored. 

6  De  Pseudo-Turpino  (1865)  and  Romania 
XI  (1882). 

7  Fita  y  Guerra,  op.  cit.,  p.  44. 

8  In  Otia  Merseiana. 

»  M.  Adrien  Lavergne  says  ( Revue  de  Gas¬ 
coigne,  XXVII,  XXVIII,  p.  76;  1887)  that  this 
is  the  Hospice  of  Montjoy  at  Compostella. 
The  Mount  I  know,  and  thereon  a  church  de¬ 
dicated  to  S.  Mark,  but  no  hospice.  There 
was  a  Mount  of  Joy  where  first  the  Roman 
pilgrims  came  in  view  of  the  Eternal  City:  if 
there  stood  a  hospice  it  would  satisfy  the 
rhetoric,  that  is  rehearsing  the  old  triad  of 
Rome,  Jerusalem  and  Compostella.  “Whoso¬ 
ever  wishes  to  go  to  the  holy  city  Jerusalem, 
let  him  always  direct  his  courses  toward  the 
sun's  rising,  and  so,  God  being  his  guide,  shall 
he  come  to  this  holy  Jerusalem.  From  the 
western  side  the  Mount  of  Joy  was  a  con¬ 
spicuous  object;  and  from  this  mountain  it  is 
one  mile  to  the  city.”  From  How  the  City  of 
Jerusalem  is  Situated,  c.  1090,  published  by 
Palestine  Pilgrims’  Text  Society. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

448 

WAY  OF  S  .  J  A  M  E  S 

10  This  has  been  said  to  us  in  another  form: 
Quien  lengua  lleva,  a  Roma  llcga. 

11  Reprinted,  the  Spanish  part,  in  Appen¬ 
dix. 

13  Villa-amil  y  Castro,  Pobladores,  ciudades, 
monumenlos  y  caminos  antiguos,  p.  109. 

Dozy,  Recherches,  II,  87. 

14  Lopez  Ferreiro,  Historia  de  la  S.  A.  M. 

Iglesia,  V,  91.  Cf.  also  Murguia,  Galicia,  p. 
4 1 7  -  ' 

15  Quadrado,  Asturias  y  Leon,  p.  623. 

16  G.  Parthey  and  M.  Pinder,  Itinararium 
Antonini  Augusti,  p.  204. 

17  Bolelin  de  la, Real  Academia  de  Historia, 
XXI  (1892). 

CHAPTER  V 

The  substance  of  this  chapter  is  drawn 
chiefly  from  Pardiac,  S.  Jacques  le  Majeur 
et  le  PMerinage  de  Compostelle — Lavergne, 
Les  Chemins  de  S.  Jacques  en  Gascoigne — 
Villa-amil  y  Castro,  La  peregrinacion  a  San¬ 
tiago  de  Galicia — Murguia,  Galicia — L6pez 
Ferreiro,  Historia  de  la  S.  A.  M.  Iglesia — 
Victor  Le  Clerc,  in  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la 
France,  XXI — Acta  Sanctorum. 

1  It  should  be  noted  for  later  comparison 
that  in  England  the  Milky  Way  was  called  the 
Walsingham  Way,  and  that  GlastonDury  was 
identified  with  the  Isle  of  Avalon,  whence  the 
three  Queens  came  and  fetched  Arthur  of  Brit¬ 
ain  when  he  was  dead.  V.  Gaston  Paris, 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

449 

Conte  dela  Charette,  in  Romania,  XII,  pp.  459- 
534- 

2  Fita  y  Guerra,  Recuerdos  de  un  viaje,  p.  54. 

3  Paul  the  Deacon,  History  of  the  Lombards, 

III,  xxxii. 

4  Recherches,  II,  277.  In  view  of  the  date 
c.  830  often  given  for  the  Invention,  the 
importance  of  this  incident  is  apparent. 
Dozy  seems  not  to  have  questioned  it.  His 
MS.  dated  649  of  the  Hegeira,  i.  e.,  a.d.  1251, 
by  Ibn-Dihya  (died  a.d.  1235)  draws  from 
Tammam-ibn-’Alcama,  died  a.d.  896,  who 
had  known  personally  Al-Ghazal  and  his 
companions.  Op.  cit.,  267,  268. 

5  Cited  by  Sr.  D.  Francisco  Fernandez 
y  Gonzalez  in  Boletin  de  la  Real  Academia 
de  Historia,  1877,  I,  461. 

6  Cahier  and  Martin,  Nouveaux  Melanges, 

IV,  320. 

7  Morales,  Cronica  general,  Bk.  IX,  chap.  vi. 

8  Cf.  La  Fuente,  Historia  eclesiastica  de 
Espana,  III,  537. 

» Quoted  by  Govantes  in  his  Diccionario 
geogrdfico-historico,  Seccion  II,  p.  176. 

10  Okey,  The  Story  of  Avignon,  pp.  21-26. 

11  L6pez  Ferreiro,  Historia  de  la  S.  A.  M. 
Iglesia,  V,  82. 

11  Lopez  Ferreiro,  op.  cit.,  IV,  75-76. 

18  Fita  and  Vinson,  Le  Codex. 

14  Espana  sagrada,  XXXV,  p.  246. 

13  Id.  ibid.,  XXXV,  108. 

16  Id.  ibid.,  137. 

17  Galicia,  419,  note. 

18  Roger  of  Hovenden,  in  Chronicle:  Rerum 
Britannicum  Scriptores,  II,  117. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

450 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

*®  Murguia,  Galicia,  426.  Reprinted  here 
in  Appendix. 

Cf.  Colas,  La  Voie  Romaine  de  Bordeaux  A 
Astorga  dans  sa  Tr  aver  see  des  Pyrenees,  in 
Revue  des  Etudes  Anciennes,  1912. 

10  Luke  of  Tuy  in  Hispaniae  Illustratae, 
IV,  104-5. 

3 1  G.  Paris,  Legendes  du  Moyen-A  ge. 

33  Villani,  Chroniche  Fiorentine,  Bk.  VI,  90. 

3  J  Murguia,  Galicia,  p.  425. 

34  Froissart,  Chronicles  of  France,  England , 
and  Spain,  Bk.  I,  chap.  cx. 

35  Michel,  Le  Pays  Vasque,  p.  337. 

36  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  XXI,  290. 

37  The  Stations  of  Rome  and  The  Pilgrms'  Sea 
Voyage,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  1877,  vols.  25-26,  p.  37. 

38  Arber,  English  Garner. 

39  J.  R.  Mendndez  Pidal,  Poesia  popular, 
xlvi,  p.  273. 

30  J.  R.  Menendez  Pidal,  op.  cit.,  lxiv,  lxv. 

3 1  Bonilla  y  San  Martin,  Flores  y  Blancaflor, 
1916. 

33  Acta  SS.,  May,  vol.  vii,  144. 

33  This,  at  any  rate,  is  how  Enrique  Cock 
the  guardsman  understood  it,  and  he  brought 
away  a  white  chicken  feather  in  evidence. 
Jornada  de  Tarazona,  p.  52. 

34  Dante,  Vita  Nuova,  §  xli. 

NOTES:  BOOK  TWO 

CHAPTER  I 

'La  Fuente,  Historia  eclesialica,  III,  299. 

3Fita  and  Vinson,  Le  Codex  de  S.  Jacques,  p.  7. 

I 

— 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 


3  A.  Lavergne,  Les  Chemins  de  S.  Jacques  en 
Gascoigne,  p.  15.  i 

«  Quadrado,  Aragon,  p.  314.  | 

s  Fita,  Elogio  de  la  Reina  de  Castilla  Doha 
Leonor,  pp.  9-10.  j 

CHAPTER  II  ! 

Briz  Martinez,  Historia  de  la  fundacion  y\ 
antigiiedades  de  S.  Juan  de  la  Pena — Cronica 
de  S.  Juan  de  la  PeHa— Sandoval,  Historia  de 
los  reyes  de  Castilla  y  Aragon — Pedro  Abarca, 
Los  reyes  de  Aragon— La  Fuente,  Historia  Sole- 
sidstica — Yepes,  Coronica  general  de  la  Or  den 
de  S.  Benito— Rodrigo  Ximenez,  Cronica  de 
Espana — Quadrado,  Aragon— V  ictor  Bala- 
guer,  Instituciones  y  reyes  de  Aragon — Lam- 
p6rez,  Historia  de  la  arquitectura,  and  Notas 
de  una  excursion. 

1  We  who  are  worth  as  much  as  you  and  can 
do  more  than  you,  we  choose  you  king  that  you 
may  guard  our  rights  and  liberties;  and 
between  you  and  us  one  who  has  more  author¬ 
ity  than  you.  If  not,  then, — not! 

2  Cronica  de  Aragon,  Edition  de  1499,  fol. 
3  and  fol.  17,  quoted  by  Quadrado,  p.  iix., 
note. 

3  Briz  Martinez,  Historia  de  S.  Juan  de  la 
Pena,  lib.  I,  cap.  xxix. 

<  La  Fuente,  Historia  eclesidstica,  III,  534. 

Jaca:  the  Cathedral: 

1  Lampdrez,  Notas  de  una  excursion  a  S. 
Juan  de  Banos  ...  5.  Juan  de  la  Pena  in 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


452 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Boletin  de  la  Sociedad  Espanola  de  Excursiones, 
(1899),  VII,  177. 

3  Lamp^rez,  Historia  de  la  arquitectura,  I, 
375.  381,  674.  For  a  general  discussion  of 
developed  Romanesque,  cf.  Robert  de  Las- 
teyrie,  L’ Architecture  Religieuse  en  France. 

3  Quadrado,  Aragon,  p.  295. 

4  Sandoval,  Historia  de  los  reyes  in  Cronica 
general,  XII,  208. 

5  La  Fuente,  Historia  eclesiastica,  III, 
354- 

6  Charles  de  Lasteyrie,  L’abbaye  de  S. 
Martial  de  Limoges. 

S.  Juan  de  la  Pena: 

1  Briz  Martinez,  op.  cit.,  p.  77. 

3  Lamperez,  Espana  moderna,  October, 
1899:  also  Lamperez  in  Boletin  de  la  Sociedad 
Espanola  de  Excursiones,  1899,  VII,  177. 

3  Op.  cit.,  p.  324. 

4  Op.  cit.,  II,  xiv. 

s  Briz  Martinez,  op.  cit.,  I,  xxix. 

6  La  Fuente,  op.  cit.,  Ill,  303. 

7  The  suggestion  of  this  I  owe  to  Professor 
Kingsley  Porter,  who  after  studying  photo¬ 
graphs  of  these  capitals  and  the  portal  at 
Estella,  proposes  the  converse  of  it. 

8  In  Cronica  general  de  EspaHa,  XII,  208. 

Alfonso  el  Batallador: 

1  Briz  Martinez,  op.  cit.,  i,  xxii,  and  xii, 
ix. 

3  Dozy,  Recherches,  I,  348. 

3  Op.  cit.,  p.  792. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

453 

CHAPTER  III 

Govantes,  Diccionario  geogrdfico-historico — 
Section  II — Llaguno,  Noticias  de  arquitectos 
y  arqmtectura — Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logrono, 
and  Museo  espanol  de  antiguedades — Lam- 
perez  ,Historia  de  la  arqmtectura — Iturralde  y 
Suit,  Las  grandes  rmnas  mondsticas  de  Na¬ 
varra — Enlart,  in  Michel,  Histoire  de  I’Art,  I, 
ii,  558  seqq. — Bertaux,  in  the  same,  II,  i, 
214  seqq. 

Leyre: 

1  Diccionario  geogrdfico-historico,  I,  i,  438- 
446. 

1  Lamperez,  Historia  de  la  arqmtectura, 
I,  593- 

3  Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logrono,  I,  545. 

4  Leqons  professes  a  I’ecole  du  Louvre,  I, 
577-579. 

5  Lafevre-Pontalis,  Congres  archeologique 
de  France,  1913,  p.  302:  an  article  also  in 
1903. 

6  Iturralde  y  Suit  quotes  Historia  del 
monasterio  de  Leyre,  in  Las  grandes  ruinas 
mondsticas  de  Navarra,  pp.  307,  sqq. 

7  Op.  cit.,  I,  560. 

8  Museo  espanol  de  antiguedades,  V,  209; 
also  in  Diccionario  geogrdfico-historico,  I,  i, 

441. 

» S.  Luke,  i,  41. 

10  To  confirm  or  connect  this  consult,  in 
addition,  Lasteyrie,  L’ Architecture  religieuse 
en  France,  Baum,  Romanesque  Architecture 
in  France,  and  the  fine  series  of  plates  in  the 

- 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

454 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

series  called  Archives  du  Commission  des 
Monuments  Historiques. 

Sangiiesa: 

1  Diccionario  geografico-historico  I,  297. 

2  Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logroho.  II,  488. 

3  Michel,  Histoire  de  I’Art,  II,  258,  261. 

4  Historia  de  la  arquitectura,  I,  602. 

5  Pons  occurs  in  the  second  Chanson  des 
Pelerins: — 

“A  Lusignan  avons  passe, 
a  Saintes,  a  Pont,  puis  a  Blaye.” 

Quoted  by  Lavergne,  Revue  de  Gascoigne, 
1887,  p.  175. 

6  Genesis,  iii,  15-16. 

r  Minns,  Scythians  and  Greeks,  passim; 
M.  Anatole  de  Roumejoux,  L'Ornementation 
Merovingien  et  Carolingien,  in  Congres  Archeo- 
logiquede  France,  1894,  PP-  3r7.  sqq. 

8  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  p.  495. 

9  Id.  ibid.,  p.  493. 

10  Noticias  de  los  arquitectos  y  la  arqui- 
tectura,  I,  87. 

1 1  Op.  et  loc.  cit. 

12  Op.  cit.,  pp.  27,  92,  95. 

13  Pelayo  Quintero,  Sillas  de  coro,  p.  112. 

CHAPTER  IV 

Diccionario  geografico-historico,  (s.  v.  Pam¬ 
plona) — Iturralde  y  Suit,  Miscelanea — Ma¬ 
drazo,  Navarra  y  Logroho,  II — Alvarado,  Guia 
del  viajero  en  Pamplona — Lamp6rez,  Historia 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

455 

de  la  arquitectura — Bertaux,  in  Michel,  His- 
toire  de  I’Art,  II,  ii — Street,  Gothic  Architecture 
in  Spain. 

■Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logroho,  II,  212- 
216;  Moret,  Annales,  xvii,  c.  vi,  §  1. 

2  Historia  de  la  arquitectura ,  I,  348. 

3  Quoted  by  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  II,  341. 

4  Michel,  Historia  de  PArt,  II,  ii. 

3  Id.  id. 

6  Cf.  Cursor  Mundi,  11,  16859-16868  (E.  E. 
T.S.). 

i  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  II,  p.  290,  note. 

8  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  II,  pp.  317-318,  521- 
523- 

9  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  II,  pp.  xhx,  1,  li,  and 
35I~353-  A  digest  of  this  in  French  was  pub¬ 
lished  by  Bertaux  in  the  Gazetie  de  Beaux 
Arts. 

10  Exposicion  retrospectivo  de  Zaragoza,  p.  41. 

1 1  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  II, pp.  337-8.  I  oweafinal 
chance  to  examine  this  treasure,  more  jealously 
locked  up  every  year,  to  the  landlord  of  the 
Grand  Hotel.  After  examining  the  houses  of 
La  Francesa  and  5.  Julian,  I  were  ungrateful 
not  to  pause  and  praise  this  one,  where  were 
found  European  ways  and  cooks,  quiet  and 
space  that  seemed  luxurious,  rest,  and,  from 
the  landlord,  untiring  kindness  and  interest. 

CHAPTER  V 

Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logroho,  II  and  Ill- 
La  Fuente,  Historia  eclesiastica ,  III,  IV,  and 
Espaha  sagrada,  L — Llaguno,  Noticias  de  los 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

[ 

456 


WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 


arquitectos  y  arquilectura,  I — Diccionario  geo- 
grafco-historico  de  Espana,  I — Yanguas,  Dic¬ 
cionario  de  antigiiedades  de  Navarra — Altamira, 
Historia  de  Espana  y  de  la  civilizacion  espanola 
— Lampdrez,  Historia  de  la  arquilectura — Itu- 
rralde  y  Suit,  Miscelanea  and  Las  grandes 
ruinas  mondsticas. 


1  Cultura  Espanola,  VII,  November,  1907. 

3  It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  open 
arcading  stuck  in  the  mind  of  thirteenth- 
century  pilgrims,  for  it  figures  in  Thurkill’s 
Vision.  V.  Appendix. 

Puente  la  Reyna: 

1  Jaufre  Rudel. 

3  Cf.  Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logrono,  II,  p. 
200,  note;  and  Iturralde  y  Suit,  Miscelanea, 
73-77- 

3  Cf.  Lamperez,  Historia  de  la  arquitectura, 
I.  3°9_339>  and  Altamira,  Historia  de  Espana, 
vols.  I  and  II,  §  216-555,  passim. 

4  Traggia,  in  Diccionario  geogrdfico-his- 
torico,  I,  i,  263,  5.  v.  Puente  la  Reyna;  Ma¬ 
drazo,  op.  cit.,  II,  538-540;  Iturralde  y  Suit, 
Las  grandes  ruinas,  242. 

s  Op.  cit.,  I,  617. 

6  Op.  cit.,  II,  540-547. 

7  Llaguno,  Noticias  de  los  arquitectos  y  ar¬ 
quitectura,  i,  87. 

8  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  II,  547-548. 

El  Sepulcro: 

1  Traggia,  in  Diccionario  geografico-historico 
I,  i,  387,  s.  v.  Torres. 


I 


HISPANIC  NOTES 


NOTES 

457 

3  Briz  Martinez,  Historia  de  S.  Juan  de  la 
Pena,  p.  806. 

3  Cf.  Street,  Gothic  Architecture  in  Spain ,  I, 
130,  260. 

*  La  Fuente,  Espaha  sagrada,  L,  139. 

s  Id.  id.,  143. 

6  Cf.  La  Fuente,  op.  cit.,  133-138. 

7  The  cross  of  the  Order  is  the  double  cross 
fleurie,  a  cross  of  Lorraine,  with  two  bars  end¬ 
ing  in  fleur-de-lys.  Torres  wears  that  with 
a  difference.  At  the  present  moment  it  is 
familiar  enough  as  the  badge  of  the  79th 
Division,  U.  S.  A. 

8  La  Fuente,  op.  cit.,  1,  141. 

9  Cf.  A.  Kingsley  Porter,  The  Development 
of  Lombard  Sculpture  in  the  T welfth  Century, 
in  American  Journal  of  Archaeology,  19x5,  vol. 
XIX,  p.  148,  note. 

1 0  Iturralde  y  Suit,  Las  cruzadas  de  Navarra 
en  tierra  santa  in  Miscelanea,  pp.  24-30. 

CHAPTER  VI 

Yepes,  Coronica  general  de  la  Orden  de 
S.  Benito — Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logrono,  III 
— Govantes,  Diccionario  geogr&fico-historico 
de  Espana,  I— -Iturralde  y  Suit,  Las  grandes 
ruinas  monasticas,  and  Miscelanea — Lam- 
perez,  Historia  de  la  arquitectura — Llaguno, 
Noticias  de  los  arquitectos  y  arquitectura — 
Serrano-Fatigati,  Portadas  artisticas — V  enturi, 
Historia  dell' Arte,  III — A.  Kingsley  Porter, 
Lombard  Architecture. 

1  Iturralde  y  Suit,  Porlada  de  la  iglesia  de 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

458 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

5.  Roman  en  Cirauqui,  in  Las  grandes  ruinas 
monasticas,  pp.  246-249.  Cf.  the  church 
door  of  Montmoreau  in  France  and,  in  gen¬ 
eral,  Lasteyrie,  L' Architecture  Religieuse  en 
France,  figs.  235,  378,  581,  582;  likewise  S. 
Michel  de  1’ Aiguille  in  Le  Puy,  where  the 
Estella  road  was  well  known. 

J  Traggia,  in  Diccionano  geografico-historico, 
I,  i,  p.  264,  s.  v.  Estella. 

3  Yangiias,  Diccionario  de  las  antigiiedades 
de  Navarra,  s.  v.  Estella. 

4  Traggia,  op.  et  loc.  cit. 

5  Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logrono,  III,  49, 

125. 

6  Caxton,  Golden  Legend,  The  Life  of  S. 
Andrew  the  Apostle. 

'  Fine  plates  of  this  portal,  among  others, 
may  be  consulted  in  Serrano-Fatigati,  Por- 
tadas  artisticas. 

8  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  53-56. 

»  Id.  ib.,  p.  98. 

10  Traggia,  op.  cit.,  268. 

11  Quoted  by  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  p.  94,  from 
an  unpublished  MS.  entitled,  Memorias  his- 
toricas  de  Estella,  compuestas  y  dedicadas  d  la 
ciudad  por  el  licenciado  D.  Baltasar  de  Le- 
zaun  y  Andia,  abogado  de  los  Reales  Concejos  y 
vecino  de  ella.  Ano  de  1710. — Ahadidas  con 
algunas  noticias  que  no  tuvo  presentes  el  his- 
toriador,  por  otro  hijo  de  la  misma  ciudad,  en 
el  ano  1792. 

12  Cf.  Venturi,  Historia  dell’ Arte,  III,  pp. 
64,  296,  937. 

13  Op.  cit.,  p.  297. 

14  Viaje  de  Espafia,  XII,  309. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

459 

15  Llaguno,  Noticias  de  los  arquitectos  y  la 
arquitectura,  I,  71,  105. 

Irache: 

1  Yepes,  Coronica  general  de  la  Or  den  de  5. 
Benito,  III,  165. 

2  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  127. 

3  “Thou  shalt  get  kings,  though  thou  be 
none”:  Macbeth,  I,  iii. 

*  Gar  ran,  5.  Maria  la  Real  de  Najera,  p.  23. 

s  Op.  cit.,  iii.,  365. 

6  Historia  de  la  arquitectura,  I,  599;  v.  also 
447,  595  sqq. 

Madrazo  says,  op.  cit.,  136,  that  there  were 
once  tribunes  above  the  aisles,  now  blocked; 
Sr.  Lamperez,  however,  testifies,  p.  596,  that 
there  was  no  more  than  a  beginning.  Ma- 
drazo’s  whole  discussion  of  the  abbey,  pp.  128- 
155,  is  admirable,  drawing  from  Yepes  and 
other  sources  both  rare  and  unprinted,  and 
likewise  from  the  data  of  D.  R.  Velazquez 
Bosco’s  expedition  in  1883,  with  his  students, 
among  whom  was  Sr.  Lamperez. 

1  Yepes,  op.  cit.,  i.,  240. 

CHAPTER  VII 

Thomas,  L' Entree  d'Espagne — Madrazo,  Na¬ 
varra  y  Logroho,  III — Diccionario  geografico- 
historico  —  Froissart,  Chronicles  of  France, 
England,  and  Spain — Lamperez,  Historia  de  la 
arquitectura — Garrdn,  5.  Maria  la  Real — Pere 
L6pez  de  Ayala,  Cronica  del  Rey  Pedro. 

1  V.  Appendix. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

460 

WAY  OF  S .  JAMES 

2  Traggia,  Diccionario  geografico-historico 
s.  v.  Los  Arcos  I,  i,  p.  456. 

3  Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logrono,  III,  158-9, 
168. 

2  Established  by  Charles  the  Noble  in  1423, 
extinct  under  John  II,  in  1461.  V.  Diccion¬ 
ario  geografico-historico  de  Espana,  I,  ii,  44. 

5  Govantes,  Diccionario  geografico-historico , 
Secci6n  II,  p.  107. 

The  Spires  of  Logrono: 

1  Purchas  his  Pilgrims,  VII. 

2  Riano,  Viajes  de  exlranjeros,  p.  241. 

3  Jornada  de  Tarazona,  p.  57. 

4  Govantes,  Diccionario  geografico-historico, 
Seccion  II,  Logrono,  106. 

5  Navarra  y  Logrono,  III,  560. 

6  La  Fuente,  Espana  sagrada,  L,  p.  140. 

7  Lamp^rez,  Historia  de  la  arquitectura,  II, 
289. 

8  Caxton,  Golden  Legend,  The  Life  of  S. 
Bartholomew. 

»  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  Ill,  202. 

Along  the  Battlefield: 

1  Pere  Lopez  de  Ayala,  Cronica  de  los  reyes 
de  Castilla,  vol.  I,  pp.  557,  559- 

2  Froissart,  Chronicles  of  France,  England, 
and  Spain,  Bk.  I.,  chap,  ccxli. 

3  Caxton’s  Lyf  of  the  most  Noble  and  Crys- 
ten  Prince,  Charles  the  Great,  Early  English 
Text  Society,  extra  series,  XXXV,  ii,  221. 

4  The  English  romances  are  too  farcical 
to  supply  happy  quotations,  nor  is  the  measure 
other  than  the  butter- woman’s  rank  to  market : 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 

461 

"Charles  com  to  Nasers — with  his  doussy 
peers— to  see  that  Paynim. 

He  asked  withouten  fail — of  King  Charles 
battayl — to  fight  against  him : 

Charles  wondered  tho — when  he  saw  him  go 
— he  beheld  him  each-a  limb, 

For  sithen  he  was  y-bore — he  no  had  y-seen 
before— none  that  was  so  grim.” 

—Rouland  and  Vernagu. 

E.E.T.S.,vol.  XXXIX,  ii. 

S.  Mary  the  Royal: 

1  The  Chronology  of  the  Kings  of  Najera, 
as  given  by  Fr.  Moret,  was  published  by 
Govantes  in  his  Diccionario  Geografico-His- 
torico  de  Espaha,  Section  II,  where  I  found  it, 
pp.  131-133,  and  supported  by  documenta¬ 
tion  in  Appendix  3,  pp.  245-248. 

J  Dozy,  Recherches  I,  xiv. 

1 J.  R.  Menendez  Pidal,  Primera  cronica 
general,  cap.  791 ;  pp.  474~475- 

4  Cahier  et  Martin,  Nouveaux  Melanges, 
IV,  39- 

s  Op.  cit.,  II.,  502.  This  architect’s  analysis 
and  judgement  of  the  building,  though  just,  is 
severe,  and  allows  little  for  the  splendour  of 
magnitude. 

6  Garran,  op.  cit.,  pp.  72-3. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Lamptiez,  Historia  de  la  arquitectura — 
Madrazo,  Navarra  y  Logroho,  III — Govantes, 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

462 

WAY  OF  S.  JAMES 

Diccionario  historico-geografico,  Seccidn  II — 
Marti  y  Monso,  Estudios  historico-artisticos . 

'  Diccionario  geogrdfico-historico,  Secci6n  II. 
pp.  176-180. 

2  Navarra  y  Logrono,  III,  695-6. 

3  Ribadeneyra,  Flos  sanctorum ,  II,  68. 

*  So  Sr.  Lamp6rez,  op.  cit.,  II,  21O.  D. 
Ignacio  Alonso  Martinez,  5.  Domingo  de  la 
Calzada,  p.  80,  says  1158.  The  later  date  is 
the  likelier. 

5  Llaguno,  Noticias  delos  arquitectos,  Pp.30. 

6  Madrazo,  op.  cit.,  698,  701. 

7  Cean  Bermudez,  Diccionario  historico  de 
los  mas  ilustres  profesores,  I,  30. 

8  Madoz,  Diccionario  geografico  s.  v.  Najera, 

30. 

»  Garran,  5.  Maria  la  real  de  Najera,  p.  54. 

1 0  Published  by  Marti  y  Mons6  in  Estudios 
historico-artisticos,  p.  83. 

11  In  Sillas  de  coro,  p.  52. 

12  Op.  cit.,  p.  99,  Ndjera;  95,  S.  Domingo; 
84-94,  S.  Benito. 

13  Op.  cit.,  pp.  96  seqq. 

18  Martinez  y  Sans,  Historia  del  tempi 0 
catedral  de  Burgos,  p.  285. 

's  Marti  y  Mons6,  op.  cit ,  p.  101. 

16  Martinez  y  Sans,  op.  cit.,  p.  204,  205. 

17  Marti  y  Monsb,  op.  cit.,  p.  585. 

18  Op.  cit.,  pp.  574-583. 

Op.  cit.,  IT,  1 30-1 32. 

20  Tramoyeres  y  Blasco,  El  retablo  de  Poblet 
in  La  Vanguardia,  Jan.  12,  1911. 

21  M.  de  Pano,  Damian  Forment  en  Barbas- 
tro,  in  Cultura  Espahola,  1906. 

I 

HISPANIC  NOTES 

NOTES 


”  M.  Bertaux  has  discussed  this,  in  Michel, 
Histoire  de  VArt,  IV,  ii,  946-950,  but  without 
seeing  the  retable. 

Marti  y  Mons6,  op.  cit.,  176. 

*<V.  p.  130  and  Appendix,. 

2>  B.  Berenson,  The  Central  Italian  Painters 
of  the  Renaissance,  p.  215. 

26  Riafio,  Viajes  de  exlranjeros,  pp.  242- 
275- 

2i  Apotheosis  and  After  Life,  pp.  220,  221, 
Plate  xxvii. 

Sieur  des  Orties: 

1  Llaguno,  Noticias  de  los  arquitectos,  I,  27. 

2  Espaha  sagrada,  XXVII,  193. 

5  Lamp6rez,  op.  cit.,  I,  482-484.  Plan, 
p.  483. 

*  E spana  sagrada,  XXVII,  180. 

*  Llaguno,  op.  cit.,  I,  20,  27-28. 

6  Espaha  sagrada,  XXVII,  177. 

i  Id.,  id.,  p.  194.  Cf.  Ribadeneyra,  Flos 
Sanctorum,  II,  183. 

8  Eloy  Garda  Conce!16n,  Boletin  de  la 
Sociedad  Espahola  de  Excursiones,  1895,  III, 
37- 


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